The trouble is that we are in cap hell again and pissing away 23 million more guaranteed on Taysom Hurt makes it harder to dig out. I believe his salary next year is guaranteed and the following year is guaranteed for injury plus guaranteed if he is on the roster 3 days into next season so the only way to avoid paying his 2023 salary is if he heals fast and then cut him and pay him $10 million for nothing next year. We are going to have to let someone like Lattimore or Ram or CGJ walk due to Taysoms salary.

The trouble is that we are in cap hell again and pissing away 23 million more guaranteed on Taysom Hurt makes it harder to dig out. I believe his salary next year is guaranteed and the following year is guaranteed for injury plus guaranteed if he is on the roster 3 days into next season so the only way to avoid paying his 2023 salary is if he heals fast and then cut him and pay him $10 million for nothing next year. We are going to have to let someone like Lattimore or Ram or CGJ walk due to Taysoms salary.

Lattimore and Ram are signed not sure the rest of the stated numbers are entirely accurate. I’m sure there will be a couple of players that we would prefer to keep but will be released. I don’t see this sky is falling talking point being realivant … read Nick Underwood’s latest peace. Last year at this time talking heads along with some on this site were sure we have to gut the team and would not contend.

Be Happy don’t worry ML has a plan 😆

Think about this:

The Saints had to gut their roster, shaving $111 million to fit under the NFL’s reduced salary cap, then could barely afford to add reinforcements in free agency. The team had to evacuate for Hurricane Ida in August and spend the first month of the season living in Dallas, while playing their first “home game” in Jacksonville against the Green Bay Packers (which the Saints won 38-3).

Superstar receiver Michael Thomas and kicker Wil Lutz were among those who never played a down this season because of injuries. Then, after the Saints got off to an unlikely 5-2 start, quarterback Jameis Winston suffered a season-ending ACL tear in Week 8.
The Saints have used four different starting quarterbacks and 10 different starting O-line combinations. And that total of 58 offensive and defensive starters doesn’t even include the four kickers they’ve used.

My worry is if gutting our roster once took us from 12-4 to 9-8 what does gutting it again do? And if we both gut and push obligations forward like we did last year, do we end up 6-11 and in cap hell in the 2023 offseason with $50 million each cap hit if we want to cut Peat or Hill due to 2022 restructuring to contracts with 10 voidable years and salaries converted to signing bonuses. I think we need to accept rebuilding because while we went from winning a top seed to marginally contending, creative solutions to cap hell never make things better.

What the offseason could look like is we lose armstead, winston, ingram, roby, and one of the safeties, sign no starting caliber additions, and have to extend Peat to 2032 to achieve a 2022 cap savings.

What drove our 9-8 season was suspensions displacement COVID and injuries to every unit of this team … not gutting and pushing money down the road. We made some hard choices but we did not gut this team last offseason. Nor did pushing money down the road. Kinda like many companies that work and budget on projects cash flow. Let be realistic and acknowledge that it would have been very hard for any team to have played any better than the Saints did this year with the extent of injury to starters and rotational players.