FinSaint

Yeah, it's not a problem, because Vilma and the Saints re-negotiated his contract earlier in the year and made it consist mostly of bonuses which are guaranteed, so those already counted toward the cap even with the suspension. Vilma's base salary was "only" little less than $2M if I remember correctly, and that is the only thing that will be added to the salary cap.

It's the same with Smith, his re-negotiated contract had only a $800K base salary, so the Saints only have to add $200K to their cap because of him not being suspended for the 4 games.

Now, other things that have affected the reported $8.2M the Saints still had left on the cap are the couple of DB moves they made. Rafael Bush has a $465K cap hit whereas Amaya, who Bush replaced, had a $540K cap hit. And I don't know what Marquis Johnson's cap hit was, but I suspect it was more than the $490K cap hit that Jerome Murphy has. Also, there's the cap hit of Elbert Mack, who was cut to make room for Murphy, before Johnson's injury settlement was announced.

So, all in all, the Saints' cap is looking better than I would've expected with all the moves the FO made this offseason - you gotta love the cap massaging Loomis has done once again.

"I'm not bashing people, I'm bashing their opinions because in my opinion their opinion is wrong" - Danno