BakoSaint

I have been trying to get the message across that the Saints cap situation does allow the team to begin rebuilding, and not just totally kick the can, if we are smart. For Players like Carr and Lattimore, the Saints can take advantage of the post-June-1 cut designation to actually save money against the 2025 cap while moving on from aging players.

But another tool that could be very helpful is one that would require the cooperation of players willing to retire, take a pay cut, or be semi-retired and have no hard feelings about becoming a free agent in June. Mainly this would effect players looking to retire, because a player trying to max their earnings would want to keep their current deal if overpaid, and be cut in time for the start of free agency in March to get a max deal if cut.

The method to save money would be that if a player agrees to reduce their 2025 salary to the league minimum by the start of the league year, perhaps with a bonus to make up the money in August if they are still on the team or some mechanism like that, the Saints could get cap relief that is actually greater than a restructure, and then if they are cut or retire after June 1, all the extra dead cap hit would go to 2026 not 2025, giving the team more flexibility in 2025 to make needed moves like moving on from Carr and Lattimore. This would give the team a benefit equivalent to extra Post-June-1 cuts without using up their designations.

If Ryan Ramczyk would agree to reduce his 2025 salary from $18m to $1m prior to retiring or being cut in June, the Saints could save $17m off the 2025 salary cap instantly.

If Cameron Jordan would agree to reduce his 2025 salary from $12.5m to $1.5m prior to retiring or being cut in June, the Saints could save $11m off the 2025 salary cap instantly.

If Taysom Hill (who I think could consider retiring given his age and broken ribs, if he takes an attitude like Gronk of wanting to still walk as a senior) would agree to reduce his 2025 salary from $10m to $1m prior to retiring or being cut in June, the Saints could save $9m off the 2025 salary cap instantly.

I don't expect that Davis or Mathieu will retire because they took pay cuts last year to get some guaranteed money, but their pay is modest. If either of them did decide to retire using this salary reduction method, the team could save about $5m each. Jamaal Williams could also net $2m if he decided to retire this way.

I don't know how many players would agree to this but its possible some would retire this offseason and would be willing to do it in a way that helps the team. Its possible to save up to $50m off the 2025 cap this way without committing any extra money.

While this would add to the 2026 salary cap somewhat, it would be very beneficial for rebuilding overall. These players 2026 base salaries would come off the cap, which would soften the blow of the dead cap hits in 2026. Also the dead cap hits in 2026 would be smaller than 2025, because the portion that is already prorated to 2025 would stay no matter what (keep, trade, cut, extend, its all the same once its already prorated). And freeing up some cap in 2025 by avoiding immediate dead cap hit would help the Saints have the financial freedom to cut or trade other players sooner, and avoid kicking the can by restructuring other players, which would reduce many other hits to the 2026 cap.

Overall, I hope at least one or two Saints who decide to retire or move on could do so in a way that helps the team manage their cap situation.

SmashMouth

Rumor is KC is in talks with Saints for a Lattimore trade. How does the cap help with this move, should it come to pass?

Marshon Lattimore could be on the move by Tuesday

Deep Talks ongoing reportedly

saintsfan1976

https://overthecap.com/player/marshon-lattimore/5595

Halo

Bako, smart thread you started. Thanks.

AsylumGuido

Can you share the link?

BakoSaint

Unfortunately because of the way we have managed our salary cap, trading Lattimore does not provide much immediate relief, its about break even for 2025. It would provide massive cap relief in 2026 and beyond totaling 18m in already guaranteed money and $16m in salary. His 2024 salary has been reduced to the vet minimum of about $1.2 million via restructures that kick the can down the road and one of the main advantages of a trade is the other team taking on the rest of the current year salary. But the prorated portion of Lattimore's 2024 Salary another team would pay would be only about $0.5m because the Saints have already cashed out the rest with restructures.

Trading Lattimore would have the same effect on future years caps as cutting him pre-June-1 which would both trigger a massive 2025 dead cap hit, but relieve us of his 2025 base salary and clear him completely from the 2026 cap for massive relief then.

Cutting or trading Lattimore results in:
$18m savings for Lattimore's 2025 Salary and Roster Bonus
-18.25m cap hit from Lattimore's past salaries we restructured out to 2026-2028 that would hit immediately
~13.4m that hits in 2025 no matter if we trade, cut, or keep Lattimore.

This would be the net cap result of trading Lattimore:

2024: Save $0.5m, which can be carried over to 2025
2025: Net cap hit $0.25m (but 2024 carryover would offset this)
2026: Save $18m over cutting Lattimore in spring 2026, or $28.5m in 2026 and $8m in 2027 over keeping Lattimore through 2026.

If we keep Lattimore, we could designate him a Post-June-1 cut in the offseason and save more in 2025 by kicking more dead cap to 2026, essentially making the $18.25m above hit in 2026 not 2025.

Overall we need to eat the dead cap on Lattimore whether it all hits in 2025 or 2026. We can do lots of other things to shift money between 2025 and 2026 so getting anything we can for Lattimore makes sense, even a 7th. Since the Chiefs can get Lattimore for $0.5m for the rest of the year, we might get a bit more.

I generally favor these trades, not for the big return, but because they guarantee a veteran is no longer on the team, which means the front office can't get drunk and extend them at way over market. Cut up the credit card.

If we want more financial relief, we could ask the Chiefs to take additional players, whose contracts carry guaranteed salaries or bonuses for future years. If the Chiefs don't want those players they could cut them at the end of the year. It's unlikely, but if we could get a team to take Jordan, Davis, Mathieu, Olave, Bresee, Foskey, etc we could get more cap relief. Lattimore has no future guarantees, only backloaded money for past work, so that minimizes the financial advantage of a trade vs a cut to current years base salary.