The New Orleans Saints have chosen to bring back their embattled kicker Wil Lutz for 2023, but on an important condition: that he agree to a pay cut. ESPN’s Field Yates first reported that the Saints reworked their deal with Lutz to save $1.5 million in salary cap space, which was confirmed by NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill — who adds that this was not a restructure. Instead of carrying a $3.4 million base salary for the upcoming season, Lutz is seeing just $1.9 million.
But he can earn much of it back through incentives added to his contract, per NOF’s Mike Triplett. If Lutz returns to form and does his job well in the fall, he won’t have lost any money. That’s a big “if,” though. He missed the entire 2021 season recovering from core muscle surgery and he looked rusty in 2022. Lutz did improve on extra point attempts, making all 33 of them, but his shakiness on field goals from varying distances was a problem throughout the season. He missed his first 44-yard field goal try in the Saints’ season-ending loss to the Carolina Panthers and had his second attempt (at a distance of 55 yards) blocked.
