The New Orleans Saints are still over the salary cap by more than $55 million after restructuring their contract with veteran safety Marcus Maye this week, so it’s clear that they have a lot of work to do a month ahead of free agency. And they will continue to lean on their restructure strategy to open up salary cap resources and keep their best players in town.
So who are the top candidates to be restructured next? Many of these contracts are designed with future moves in mind, so it’s not too difficult to scout ahead and guess at which players will rework their deals in the coming days and weeks. Here’s a quick survey, using contract data from Over The Cap:
RT Ryan Ramczyk
- Current salary cap hit: $21,441,321
- Max restructure savings: $9,690,000
NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill reports that the Saints are already at work in restructuring Ramczyk’s deal, but that it might be more complicated than a simple restructure. What that means is unclear: maybe Ramczyk’s side wants a new extension, maybe the Saints want to pay his signing bonus in regular installments rather than a single lump sum, or maybe it’s a secret, more complex third thing. At any rate, Ramczyk’s final cap charge won’t be anywhere close to its current state.
CB Marshon Lattimore
- Current salary cap hit: $22,464,317
- Max restructure savings: $10,065,000
The Saints restructured Lattimore last year, too, but that’s always been part of the plan. They’ll continue to lower his base salary (valued at $14.5 million) to the veteran’s minimum and pay the difference as a signing bonus because it allows them greater financial flexibility.
DE Cameron Jordan
- Current salary cap hit: $25,707,838
- Max restructure savings: $10,001,250
Jordan currently has the highest cap hit on the team, and that is definitely going to change. He’s also in the final year of his contract. It might make more sense to sign him to a new deal rather than to work a restructure with the usual void years, which would achieve the same effect while allowing him to close out his career with New Orleans.
C Erik McCoy
- Current salary cap hit: $12,680,000
- Max restructure savings: $8,000,000
Most of McCoy’s cap hit comes from a $10 million roster bonus which is primed for restructuring (which the Saints did last year with Ramczyk and Lattimore). Paying it out as a signing bonus instead lowers his salary cap charge to just $4.68 million. This has been a common move for New Orleans in recent years.
RB Alvin Kamara
- Current salary cap hit: $16,034,176
- Max restructure savings: $7,065,000
Much of Kamara’s salary cap hit is tied to his $9.4 million base salary, but he’s also due a couple of workout and roster bonuses that can all be converted into a more-manageable signing bonus. He also has some incentive to agree to a restructure because he wouldn’t forfeit any signing bonus payouts as part of a league suspension stemming his arrest in Las Vegas last year.
S Tyrann Mathieu
- Current salary cap hit: $8,900,000
- Max restructure savings: $4,376,250
Mathieu is in a similar situation to Maye as a veteran safety signed to a three-year deal, so it makes sense for him to restructure his contract. Lowering his $7 million base salary to the veteran’s minimum and paying out the difference in a signing bonus is the best move here.
Other restructure candidates
Just the moves outlined above erases about $50 million in Saints salary cap commitments without cutting a single player, getting them within a stone’s throw of cap compliance — they would be over the cap by about $5.8 million if all of these numbers are what’s eventually used. So it’ll take more moves to get the Saints under the cap and open up room for free agent signings.
And that may not necessarily involve restructures. They could release some players instead, or wait to trade them until after June 1 when it’s more financially viable. Either way, here are some of the top remaining salary cap hits:
- LG Andrus Peat: $18,371,000
- QB Jameis Winston: $15,600,000
- TE Taysom Hill: $14,175,000
- WR Michael Thomas: $13,358,588
- LB Demario Davis: $13,276,000
- LT James Hurst: $6,761,000
- K WIl Lutz: $5,620,000
- DE Carl Granderson: $4,140,000
- CB Bradley Roby: $4,027,828
- WR Tre’Quan Smith: $3.400,000
