Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

Cameron Jordan's extension last year turned out to be a big mistake. The decline we knew was coming sooner or later came and we paid a lot of money for 2 sacks and now his 2024 salary is guaranteed at the level of a well above average starter while we debate using our first round pick to replace him. It's not that Jordan is a bad guy, he is a team leader, but we are stuck paying $14 million for two sacks in 2024, no matter how many future years we refinanced that cash to. Had we simply waited, we could be paying him more like $6-8 million as a team leader whos production has dropped to a point that we would be looking to rotate younger players in on passing downs and his snaps may be a lot less than years past.

Extending players like Mathieu, Davis, and Kamara would be a similar folly if their contracts guarantee salary like Jordan's did. If its like a $2 million bonus but the 2025 salary is not guaranteed it is less risky.

Extending Kamara would be the biggest disaster. Virtually all running backs decline around his age. He is already declining unlike Mathieu and Davis. Even if he could still be elite, its a stretch for him to achieve that behind our oline. The rest of the league is getting out of big contracts to declining RB's and if we kick the can its a disaster.

Like I said with Jordan, its not like these players at their age are going to earn massive raises. There is not a realistic scenario, especially with this market collapse for safeties, where there is some bidding war to pay Mathieu $15-20 million per year in 2025. We are buying at the ceiling a year before we need to. I am not a big fan of restructures but they could save the same money at least without guaranteeing future years base salaries too. What would be the harm in waiting until mid-season to make sure they have not already declined in 2024 before we lock them in at 2023 performance pay for 2025-2026?

Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

Part of your problem is you look at players as interchangeable parts. Real fans want to see the players they love out there on the field. I want Saints institutions like Jordan, Kamara, now Davis and Mathieu in the black and gold until they decide to retire.

That said, I for one am expecting far more production from Cam given the fact he was dealing with an ankle injury all season long and was still drawing double teams.

Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

I only look at players as interchangable parts if the goal is to win championships. If the goal is friendly mediocrity then the players are irreplacable family until they say what most of us think about the coaches and then they are gone. Football is a business. How do you expect to win making decisions based on nostalgic emotion?

Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

Quido is quoted as saying: “Winning championships is not the goal”.

Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

I was cool with re-signing Cam Jordan. I definitely wanted him to retire as a Saint. I think he grossly overcharged us, but it is what it is. Mathieu took a nice little pay cut to stay from what I saw. I applaud retaining him. The contracts I didn’t like were Peat and Ruiz. Didn't understand those deals.

Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

Do we really want Kamara to retire a Saint on a fat paycheck for many more years?

https://saintswire.usatoday.com/2024...iams-contract/

Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

I want Jordan to retire a Saint too, if he doesnt want to play for a contender which would be fine too. The problem is that when he is earning $14 million for two sacks, he may be wearing a Saints uniform, but he is effectively more of an asset to the Falcons, Bucs, and Panthers. By overpaying him, he is effectively retiring a Falcon, just like Matt Ryan and Julio Jones would effectively be retiring as assets to the Saints if they had stayed put in Atlanta. The problem with Jordan was false urgency. We could have restructured his previous deal without an extension and be announcing his signing at Mathieu’s price today, a much more reasonable figure. As for the ankle excuse that came out after the season, I call bull**** on that. The guy gets two sacks all year, we never hear a thing, and all of a sudden Mickey Loomis is not dumb for guaranteeing him $14 million in 2024 because he had a sore ankle all year but dont worry 34 year old 300ish lb football players who cant shake a sore ankle for 4 months always come back 100% the next year at 35yo. Declines of big men at 34yo due to nagging soft tissue injuries are never the ending, they are usually just a new beginning to be better than ever.

Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

"Real fans", huh?

Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

Take a look around the league. There isn't a single team that isn't wanting for even average linemen to fill holes. There are many reasons for this including lack of development in college due to NCAA mandated time constraints, oversimplification of offenses due to the same, movement to other positions, etc. Offensive line help is a league wide dilemma right now.

Re: 2024 Saints Salary Cap Watch
 

Yup. I absolutely want him to remain a Saint.