The New Orleans Saints are over the most optimistic 2023 salary cap projections by tens of millions of dollars, but their approach to getting under the cap should be more typical of what we see around the league. General manager Mickey Loomis and football administration vice president Khai Harley have both expressed a desire to manage their cap commitments less aggressively than when Sean Payton was leading the organization as head coach, which makes sense.
You can’t push all of your chips in forever. You lose depth and put a ton of pressure on your rookies to contribute right away. Your margin for error is razor-thin. If a couple of signings or draft picks don’t meet expectations, and if you don’t have a Hall of Fame quarterback and/or coach to pick up the slack, well: you go 7-10 and get left on the outside looking in during the playoffs.
