New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

The 2020 season has been largely successful for the New Orleans Saints, but their salary cap situation for 2021 paints a worrying picture. Let’s take a look at the Saints’ salary cap situation and how they may improve the current predicament.

The Saints are projected to be nearly $100 million over the salary cap in 2021

The Saints’ salary cap has been an interesting proposition for a while, but in 2021 it looks set to cause a serious problem. With Drew Brees nearing retirement, the Saints have continued to push the boundaries with their cap in the past few years. However, the situation with the salary cap being set to drop in 2021 has caused serious concerns for the Saints.

As of January 13th, the projected 2021 salary cap, according to both Over the Cap and Spotrac, is set to be around $175 million. As it stands, the Saints 2021 cap commitments sit at around $275 million. The Saints will carry around $4.2 million over into 2021, meaning they are set to be around $95-100 million over the projected cap.


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Related article: Saints top pending free agents

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Good article, going to be an interesting offseason. An offseason I’m looking forward to!

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Shoulda nevah paid Peat the $... now he can buy all the sammiches he wants and stick it to the Saints. He was average this year. Too many $ for average.

Lattimore played good this last game. But he was up and down all year. It's a tough call on keeping him.

Welcome to salary cap hell.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Keep Ramcyzk. Maybe Lattimore. We are going to need to lose that great defensive line depth, and probably some of the good vets like Janoris Jenkins and Emmanuel Sanders. Our depth chart isn't going to look anywhere near as sexy as it has the last few years, but I think Loomis, Ireland and Payton will find a way to keep us around .500.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

IMO the hardest position to fill with an elite player outside of QB is CB. When you have one, you keep him.

I agree on Peat - that contract was a head scratcher.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

I never understood the Taysom Hill contract. His 2021 cap number is $16,159,000. I understand the logic behind being excited about a player..., but normally players play their way into that kind of money.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Way too much for a player who you aren’t sold on as being a future starter, especially at QB. Maybe half that at the most. While he does provide another wrinkle, what he brings definitely doesn’t warrant that kind of money. That cap number is going to hurt next year.

It will be interesting to see if they ride next season out with him at QB.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

The way that Buffalo was able to eventually bring Josh Allen along and turn him into a reliable passer is the blueprint to follow. Not sure if Taysom has that in him. But at 16 million per year, might as well take the chance.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

I'll be honest being 3-13 is better than 8-8

Being. 500 just leaves you good enough not to be embarrassing but to good to get a franchise changing player. If you are going to miss the playoffs do it in style and get a good pick. Them years after 2011 where awful
Completely wasted drafts picking middle of the pack on the whole.

The Chiefs and Texans got pretty lucky getting QBs where they did, mostly cause teams ahead picked the wrong option.

2021 should be about getting the roster and cap in check and getting building blocks in.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Difference is Taysom will be 31 at the start of next year and on a full contract. Allen is on a rookie deal and 25 at the start of 2021.

Add to that Allen doesn't have a injury history and he threw more passes by the age of 21 than Hill has to date.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Just having a play around on overthecap

Of course there is more that can be done with bonuses etc but that just shifts more money forward again and the cap jump isn't happening anytime soon by the looks of things


Just trying to get the Cap down to a level balance

Brees - Post June 1st retirement - leaves 11ml to carry over to 2022 Cap
Trade Armstead post June 1st
Trade Thomas June 1st

Cut
Jenkins
Alexander
Easton
Robinson
Murray

Leaves you 14ml over the cap with Ramczyk and Lattimore being 21ml that can be dropped with extensions


Oh and that leaves you with a roster of 37 players

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

My thoughts. And to the people thinking Taysom restructures after 1 year that’s not happening. I’m fine with Taysom next year and drafting a QB. I have my doubts Taysom will stay healthy the full season though

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

It's pretty rough... The covid situation really killed Loomis with the cap being lowered. Before the covid issues I think the cap number was around 220-240mil.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

I’m sure loomis will pull something out of his arse

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

-Extend Hill. Roll the dice. Kick the can down the road.
-Murray, Sanders, Easton and Cook all gone.
-Hendrickson, Alexander, Robertson, Rankins, Janoris Jenkins, both Williams, Robinson, and Morstead gone.
-Trade Armstead. Move Ram to LT. Hurst or Greenridge to RT.
-Trade Davenport. Injuries. Lack of production.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

They were already flirting with unprecedented territory before trading for Alexander; but now his $13.4 million salary cap hit is on the books. But as large as that mountain appears to be at first blush, the climb to the summit isn’t nearly as difficult as many fear.

For starters, Alexander’s 2021 cap hit is not guaranteed, so the Saints can release him after this season without any financial penalty (but a big pay cut is much more likely, if he proves he can get healthy and help them win games in 2020). That puts New Orleans right back where it started, with San Francisco being the only team involved in this deal to walk away with any dead money.

There are other moves to be made that can lower that salary cap. If Drew Brees retires as anticipated, the Saints will recoup $13.5 million in 2021. Nearly $27.8 million can be freed up between restructures for Terron Armstead, Cameron Jordan, and Michael Thomas (though trading Thomas, as some have speculated, would result in an additional $1.2 million paid out against the cap).

Ryan Ramczyk and Marshon Lattimore are set to earn a combined $21.2 million while playing on their fifth-year options, so signing either of them (or both of them) to a multiyear contract extension would create plenty of breathing room. Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football explored more potential offseason moves in greater depth, which you can read here.

If the Saints can complete just the salary cap accounting deals mentioned above, they’ll be resting right around $203 million against the 2021 salary cap. That’s still over the projected limit, but it’s significantly more manageable. It serves to illustrate why all of the handwringing over salary cap calculations is so overrated.

So sure, the Saints have plenty of work to do in the months ahead. But they’ve overcome these kind of obstacles before, and there’s reason to believe they can continue to field a competitive team after doing so again. Finding a worthy successor to Brees remains the biggest challenge ahead of them, even more so than this bean counting.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Josh Allen has arm talent equivalent to Patrick Mahomes. Taysom Hill isn’t anywhere in that stratosphere. Jameis Winston is more in that category with Mahomes and Allen as far as pure arm talent.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

As far as trading Thomas: you really want to trade the best WR on the team when there’s uncertainty at the QB position? We need all the talent we can get there.

Sanders is going to be 34.
Tre’Quan is inconsistent.
The rest of the receivers are unproven.

You wanna throw Winston or Hill out there like that?

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

I’m just getting over my hangover. Never seen a flat offense like the saints in a playoff game year after year. Our oline for some reason is just plain stale. Is it because Tampa finally realized that Drew can’t throw deep anymore. Daring us to beat them deep. The first 3 points just broke me by the saints could not put it in the end zone 2018 all over again. Sorry Drew couldn’t do it for us I’m going to miss him, but I’m optimistic; we’ll lose some quality depth but retool in draft and (has beens) in free agency. Winston may just hang around for the starting job after Payton figured out taysom is struggling to make reads . I’m kinda excited to move on in saints chapter. This team will not go 7-9 next season. It’s built we just have to maintain.


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Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

It’s how I feel also. It’s a good team, in need of one QB that can run the entire playbook. Getting $100,000,000.00 off the books is going to be tough though, very tough. I’m anxious to see how the Saints attack it!

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Exactly , the guy we’re going to miss is t-Rex he’s gonna get some serious coin. D-port and graderson will make out just fine. Kwon. ? Thor was the laughing stock this morning on Get- Up sports show he’s was atrocious wtf with Baun man another Bust draft pick? We are still a solid club . This draft is overstocked with talent with all the opt outs and early declares . We need to hit a grand freakin slam in the draft.


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Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Pretty ugly reading
Show how they can easily make space but its just going to lead to more and more years of limited space to rebuild unless the cap takes some massive jump or players salaries decline steeply


https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/b...to-super-bowl/

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Well, one of the few things consistent in life is change. We all new it was coming. Honestly, for so many years I found myself watching our organization work through the labyrinth of the salary cap and often time being impressed how were able to get things to work....Loomis has a reputation of getting it done year after year, troll any forum from the south, people can't believe how we are able to do it. Yes, I'm a little masochistic, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this goat rope/circus plays out. I trust Loomis, to put a competitive product on the field. Didn't say power house or all world, but we probably wont be dog crap.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

I'll be honest, i would rather be dog crap for a season or two than be a Jeff Fisher 7-9/8-8 team. Them teams get stuck in the mud, too good for a to get the best draft picks and to crap to ever make a run. The difference in a top 7 pick and 15 is massive most years,especially in the 2/3 rounds. Gives you that chance to get a haul of picks in a trade aswell.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Is it already time for the time honored annual "Saints are in real CAP trouble next year" article? Then ML restructures deals and does his normal wizardry that allows us to bring in prized free agents and continue to be good.

Yawn.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

I hear ya, and a lot of truth there......but an ass load of picks doesn’t guarantee success. A 10-6 even a 9-7 gets Ya a seat in the dance more often than not, where as 4-12 gets zippo. Some teams perennially have a lot of picks and don’t do sickum, some teams aka Seahawks get value and develop talent. The old days, pre Jim Mora, brought a lot of pain and we had plenty of draft picks each year.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

I disagree, I want the Saints to win every time they take the field - you play the game to win.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Yep. PROFESSIONAL sports or otherwise. DO everything you can to be the best, better.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Where we are in 2021:
- No QB (having candidates is not having a QB).
- 105M over the 2021 cap

The penalty for exceeding the Cap is "fines of up to $5 million for each violation, cancellation of contracts and/or loss of draft picks."

To fully understand how daunting of a task this well be, I have put options in context.

The 2020 cap was $198M and we are more than 50% over it. $105M is no where as jaw dropping as the number of players it takes to make up that number.

Gutting the team to tank a season wont get us on the field next season. That is not an option we are too deep. The below cuts only gets us to half and after that it takes 2-3 players to clear $10M in space.

Drew Brees - Cut him and save 12M
Kwon Alexander - Cut and save 13M
Marshon Lattimore - Cut and save 10M
Janoris Jenkins - $7M
Nick Easton - $6M
Terron Armstead $6M

We would effectively be looking at a 25 man roster to play 2021 with a cut and restart scenario. I suspect some of the above names will be gone and Loomis will be restructuring the remaining contracts.. meaning in essence we are looking at the 2020 team for a couple more years.

B1tching about Peat is similar to complaining about a single grain after getting a dump truck of sand unloaded in your eye. While certainly a head scratcher it is not on the radar of impact.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

I’m not sure I’ve seen this addressed anywhere, but since Brees is still under contract for 2021 and will likely be retiring... wouldn’t it be possible for him to rework his contract with a massive pay cut in ‘21 and then announce his retirement? Wouldn’t that free up a lot more money?

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Well it would have to be approved by the league so I doubt that could or would happen. They can move money around to make his base salary the league minimum with the rest bonus and that’s how they can split the cap cost over the next two years with a post June 1st retirement.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Here is a good reading piece on the Saints cap.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/a...-restructures/

This portion stood out for me ...

The Saints need to extend either cornerback Marshon Lattimore or right tackle Ryan Ramczyk's contract since only one can be designated as a franchise player in 2022. Lattimore and Ramczyk, both 2017 first-round picks, are scheduled to play 2021 under $10.244 million and $11.064 million fifth-year options. Locking up Ramczyk may be more essential because 2021 is also left tackle Terron Armstead's contract year.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Looms better back the truck up to a pharmacy. He's not going to sleep for awhile. Do they test executives for Adderall?

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Don’t worry... Payton has experience stealing pills from our medical staff’s supply.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

K, I’m not sure we can afford the franchise tag cost associated with a CB or an OL. Maybe a FB..., maybe.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

That’s for next off season. We have fifth year options for both of them so we have to extend one of them this off-season since we only have one franchise tag.

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

How do you see his "character flaws" on the football field?

And Hill doest have Touch on the football he's a poorer mans Jay Cutler

Re: New Orleans Saints salary cap situation heading into 2021
 

Jean doesn't expect anything better from Winston but you have patience for Taysom Hill who is 31 and clearly not a better thrower of the football......Headscratcher