| BakoSaint |
03-14-2025 11:19 AM |
Re: Saints 2025 Off-Season Roster Moves
Quote:
Originally Posted by AsylumGuido
(Post 1008441)
Sure, McShay suggested it, but Sigler shot him down saying he was ignoring the cap implications. Look at paragraphs four and five of his article.
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Sigler is wrong though, unless he is ignoring strategy and just stating that a high dead cap number in one particular year would look bad from a PR standpoint. Derek Carr's current cap charge for 2026 is $69 million, made up of $50 million base salary and $19 million 'zombie money' from prorated bonuses Carr was given in past restructures for past years play, its not dead cap exactly but really its the same because its for a player who is no longer on the roster unless you own a time machine, a younger version of a current player. The dead cap to cut or trade Carr is $60 million but that $60 million includes merely renaming that $19 million of 'zombie money' to 'dead money' that is on our cap in 2026 no matter what, unless Carr quits and we claw it back in arbitration. Then $40.5 million of additional prorated bonus 'zombie money' would be accelerated as dead cap to 2026. But Carr's $50 million base salary would be removed from the 2026 cap. So cutting or trading Carr would actually lower the Saints 2026 cap obligations by $9.5 million immediately, in time to help us get under the 2026 cap by the start of the league year.
While designating Carr a post-June-1 cut or actually waiting until post-June-1 to cut him in 2026 (a better option than the prior because the contract has no guarantee triggers inbetween so there is nothing to gain with wasting the tag) may seem like a better option to split up the dead cap, $19 million to 2026 and $40.5 million to 2027, neither post-June-1 option offers that immediate $9.5 million cap relief in March to help us get under the 2026 cap. Post June 1 tags have no cap effect until June 1, so that $50 million base salary would stay on the books. Ultimately the team may prefer $9.5 million immediate savings to get under the cap and sign free agents as opposed to $40.5 million savings when free agency is over and the deadline to get under the cap has passed.
So cutting or trading Carr prior to June 1 is completely viable. I assume Carr will be our Week 1 starting QB if he avoids injury in preseason because otherwise it would make even less sense to be spending the money we are, but if things go south, the right trade offer is there, or Carr as a decoy helps the right QB fall to us in the draft, we do have options. |
