The Saint have six picks in the upcoming draft, only one fewer than the norm. They also have close to $120 million in convertible cap that they intentionally built into their existing contracts via base salaries and roster/workout bonuses. They have no plan to "dig out" of anything. The whole financial strategy involves transference of current costs into future years where those costs make up a smaller percentage of the ever expanding cap. There are some good interviews out there with Khai Harley, the architect of the plan. That strategy can't change as long as either Loomis and/or Harley are still with the Saints and could very well continue after they leave as more and more teams are moving toward this model.

Sure, the Saints do indeed have six picks in the upcoming draft, missing is the big one.

I get the strategy Loomis and Harley is using, and have seen the interviews too. The flaw as I see it is being committed to a player way after their prime. At some point the cap does need to be cleaned up to avoid this, and/or to make another run at a championship. Michael Thomas may be a great example of what I am talking about. If the Saints wanted to move on from him for any reason, it looks like 2023 is the very first opportunity to do so. It appears if they would have tried to move on from him sooner that it would have created an issue of having to clear even more cap space to move him. The same appears true for guys like Cam Jordan, Andrus Peat, Alvin Kamara, and several others. I am not trying to say the Saints were looking to move on from any of them, but if there is a need to move on they simply could not do it. I do agree with your point that several other teams may or will start using this approach to the cap, but it needs to be used with extreme caution or it could easily sink a franchise.