BakoSaint

Only Lattimore and Ram would be very hard to absorb the hit. According to this we owe Michael Thomas $28 million next year if we keep him vs only $25 million dead cap if we cut or trade him so its actually a savings, and Shaheed is cheap and seems more motivated. Plus there are options like post June 1 cuts or asking players we could cut to take pay cuts.

What I really don't want to do is sign Peat, Thomas, Hill, Landry, Mathieu, etc to restructured extensions that make them Saints through 2030 in order to get under the 2023 cap and make room to bring in JJ Watt, OBJ, Matt Ryan / Tom Brady, Julio Jones, Bobby Wagner, and Ezekiel Elliott as free agents while trading all our draft picks this and next year to move up for a raw DE Or LT who will get hurt in preason and go on the IR giving us no rookies. That would be the Loomis playbook, try to be the oldest team in the league and get $ 100 million over the 2024 cap by restructuring to win it all in 2023 with the senior tour.

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/new-orleans-saints

Another thing to consider is that for 2023 a Kamara suspension is very likely and he is a key part of our offense. Also unless there is a Payton trade, which is no guarantee at all, we won't have a first round pick to contribute. And Jordan and Davis will be a year older. So does maxxing the cap and avoiding the tough cap hits that will help us in the future really make sense to try to 'win now' in 2023? I would rather watch a young underdog team in 2023 attempt to shock the world than try to keep all the veterans and watch a bunch of brittle old men try get healthy at the same time knowing cap hell is still ahead.