More moves are coming for the New Orleans Saints as they continue to work to reach salary cap compliance — ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports that the Saints plan to restructure their contract with right guard Cesar Ruiz, having already done so with quarterback Derek Carr and center Erik McCoy.
Ruiz signed a deal last summer that was primed for restructure: his extension included a league-minimum base salary in 2024 along with an $8 million roster bonus. In order to restructure his contract, the Saints are going to have to convert that roster bonus into a signing bonus and pay it out over the four years remaining on Ruiz’s contract, which will save $6,580,000 against the cap this year. It’s a smart move since the money was already promised, it’s just being paid out in a way that makes life easier for the team’s accountants.
According to estimates from the experts at Over The Cap, the Saints were in the red by about $53.7 million after restructuring their contracts with Carr and McCoy. Adding Ruiz to the list will drop them down to approximately $47.2 million. Still a ways to go before reaching salary cap compliance (with more needed to sign veteran free agents), but already nearly half where they started the offseason, without cutting a single player. This has been the plan all along. We’ll have to see if the changes to the coaching staff can make enough improvements to justify it.
