The off season may have started with that heart breaking loss to the TOMpa Bay Buc’s but the real off season work starts now that the superbowl is over. The New Orleans Saints are in “Salary cap hell” with the projected salary cap decreasing due to the Covid revenue reduction this season. The first prediction is that that Saints will be $109 Million dollars over the cap before free agency even starts. For most teams this would give their fans, players and front office nightmares…. but not the Saints.
You see the Saints have a secret weapon, their GM Mickey Loomis. He has been a wizard with the salary cap throughout the years, making salary cap changes so that the Saints had enough money to make the transactions need to in order to compete. The last few years have been all in for the Saints knowing that it’s the last few with Drew Brees. Now with Brees most likely to retire (although I personally wouldn’t be upset to see a healthy Drew give it one last year) there is a lot of question marks to see what the Saints do moving forward.
How in the world is Mickey Loomis going to reduce all that money without releasing the entire team you say? Just watch and learn from him this off season. I’m confident that not only will he reduce it but he will make room for pieces we do need. But just to put your mind at ease, here are some obvious and maybe not so obvious moves.
Drew Brees Salary Reduction: Drew has already showed his first sign of retirement. He has agreed to reduce his salary this year from $25 Million to the veteran minimum of $1.075. Meaning he basically has given back $23.925 million dollars of money the Saints were going to pay him for free. This is where it may get confusing for some but I will try and break this down. When you redo player’s contracts throughout their career you can push money you owe them down the line. So even with that reduction the Saints still owe Drew $22.65 Million. The loophole is if the Saints wait until after June 2nd and put Drew on the leagues reserve/retired list they can split that money this year and next ($11.15 Million this year and $11.5 Million next year) Saving $35.075 Million this year.
Jared Cook: I don’t even want to start about this guy and my disgust. For anyone that for some reason is on the fence, here is your justification. The Saints drafted Adam Trautman and he has shined in the opportunities given to show he can catch and block at the TE position. Cheaper and in my opinion better option than Jared Cook. Saving $9.1 Million
Nick Easton: Nick has been a good piece helping out with any injury on the offensive line. But Nick has had a lot of injury’s (Concussions to be particular) over the last few years. His salary is too much to carry for an injury prone back up. Saving $6.5 Million
Kwon Alexander: Man I want this guy back. When the Saints traded for him from the 49ers it helped sure up that LB position but he gets hurt so often and his $13.4 Million to be justified. I reality hope they release and they resign him for something reasonable but releasing him is a must. Saving $13.4 Million
Janoris “Jack Rabbit” Jenkins: Jack Rabbit has been hit and miss for me but definitely does not warrant a $11.2 Million dollar salary. Even a release though does not free up his full salary because of guarantees. Saving $7 Million
Malcom Brown: not much to say here except $5 Million to save against the cap with his release when there are similar and younger players waiting to earn their spot. Saving $5 Million
Andrus Peat: Somehow this clown got a giant contract at the beginning of this year and I still don’t know how. I also have no idea how he makes the probowl every year. I honestly don’t think he’s that good. If the saints could can convince someone to take him I would do it in a heartbeat saving his entire salary. If not a restructure is needed converting a lot of his salary this year into a signing bonus. He can’t be released because his money is guaranteed through 2022. Saving $9 million
After all of these moves the Saints will still need to free up about $30 or so million more. This will have to be done with some restructures of current contracts (Cam Jordan, Michael Thomas, Marshon Lattimore, Ryan Ramczk, Taysom Hill, etc) and possibly some unpopular releases of players (Emmanuel Sanders, Thomas Morstead, Latavius Murray). But where there is a will there is a way to get things done and in Loomis I trust.
UPDATE: since this was written, Jarad Cook, Josh Hill and Thomas Morstead have been released. As well as a restructure of Wil Lutz, David Oneyemata, Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis’s contract to free up some cap space
No comments:
Post a Comment