So how much salary cap space do the New Orleans Saints have at their disposal after restructuring their contracts with linebacker Demario Davis and utility player Taysom Hill? Converting salaries to signing bonuses with each of them saved the Saints about $12.7 million, but they were over the cap by a substantial margin before knocking those items off their offseason checklist.
Well, they don’t have any spending room yet. The Saints are still over the 2023 salary cap by as much as $18.1 million, per Over The Cap (a more conservative estimate from Spotrac has New Orleans in the red by $17.2 million). But the finish line is within sight.
There are five players left with salary cap hits valued at more than $15 million, and the Saints will need to make a decision with each of them: restructure, extend, or release. Here’s the list:
- DE Cameron Jordan: $25.7 million
- CB Marshon Lattimore: $22.4 million
- LG Andrus Peat: $18.3 million
- RB Alvin Kamara: $16 million
- QB Jameis Winston: $15.6 million
Wide receiver Michael Thomas also has a cap number of $13.3 million after previously redoing his deal, and the expectation is that he’s going to be released at the start of the new league year with a post-June 1 designation. He could return on a new deal at a significantly lower salary, but but that’s too far ahead to guess at. Teams may use that designation twice in advance of the June 1 deadline, and it’s an option for either Peat or Winston depending on how things shake.
Lattimore and Kamara should be easy calls to restructure given their age and productivity (and in Kamara’s case, it would prevent him from losing much money to a possible NFL suspension stemming from his Las Vegas battery case; weekly salaries are forfeited, but signing bonuses are not touched). Jordan could sign an extension, seeing as he’s in the final year of his contract, rather than doing a standard restructure which would leave a lot of dead money behind if he isn’t re-upped in 2024.
The Saints still have options. And that’s just how their salary cap guru Khai Harley likes it — he designs contracts with players to have all of these levers and mechanisms to work with years in advance, giving New Orleans salary cap flexibility that few teams can weaponize as effectively. Hopefully the Saints can get in the clear soon and open up more resources to put towards improving their roster when free agency kicks off on March 15.
