New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

"We will have a tight cap this year, nothing we cannot handle," Loomis said.

Indeed, in the past Loomis has proven capable of getting the Saints out of tight binds. In 2011, the Saints went into free agency with 27 free agents and managed just fine.

Last offseason, the Saints went into the free agency period with about $26 million in cap room, but somehow re-signed quarterback Drew Brees to the richest deal in NFL history and inked receiver Marques Colston, as well as signed coveted free agents Ben Grubbs, Curtis Lofton, David Hawthorne and Broderick Bunkley.

Another such coup could be especially daunting for the Saints, who have the NFL's second-highest amount committed toward the 2013 cap at $138.5 million. The Saints can carry over about $2.4 million in savings, though.

Some salary cap experts said teams in the Saints' situation shouldn't fret.

They believe the salary cap can be manipulated to get players signed and the numbers to work.

"Sometimes it's real and sometimes it's not. ... But without knowing everything the Saints are facing specifically, that's a hard question to answer," said NFL Network analyst Charley Casserly, a former NFL executive.

The Saints believe they have a tried-and-true method to free agency and handling the NFL's salary cap.

Full article: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues | NOLA.com

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

lets watch mickey pull another wabbit out of his hat

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

Ha! I love Drew but there is no way he will restructure! It's -7 degrees here right now and it'd have to be a colder day in hell before he restructured! I can't believe the article even mentions that. Lmao!!!

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

If Drew wants to sit home in January again he won't restructure but if he wants another shot at the superbowl he will!

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

I can see him restructuring. Some of it can be moved to a bonus and some can be deferred. He already collected on the first year's front-loaded portion.

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

Well of course Loomis is going to say he will handle it... I'm confident in his abilities though. He's done impressive work in New Orleans. Just worried about our ability to make a difference on the defensive side of the ball now that we are strapped by Brees' contract.

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

I am glad i am not an NFL QB making 100mm... You guys are brutal.


Seriously... Do any of you think that Loomis only looks at this year to year? He would have been fired long ago if he only planed one year at a time. The plan is already in place, certain portions of it are just in pencil for the time being.

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

Seriously, Drew will have to restructure. The "contract" of the century he signed is exactly as overblown as Peyton Manning's was in Indy, and Manning restructured each of the following years he was at Indy before he broke his neck.

There's no holding out now, Drew is in a contract. The Saints can play some hardball with him and he'll allow it because "quitting" a team for an aging veteran in a contract is WAYYY too risky. Even if picked up somewhere else, their contract will have more loopholes in it than you can imagine and probably pay less until he delivers a playoff win or something.

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

So we are stuck with the duds on defense we have?!?

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

Nope.

And I'd like to add (JP, you know this) a better front seven will make our current secondary look much, much better than last year.

All we really need going into next season is
DE
DT
OLB
OT

Maybe S, WR

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

We will prevail. Leave it to loomis and payton. Bet we put a winning team together for a while.we have the base put in we just need to tinker with a few good men.

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

A copy/paste from a previous article, many of you have already seen it...

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

I'd be happy with Smith at 3 mill and Vilma at 2.5 mill

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

Restructuring contracts is like we are robbing Peter to pay Paul.......gain now-pain later.
We will eventually have to blow up the entire team and start over at some point I would imagine.

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

Not necessarily Dale.

If we're certain a player will be around for the life of his contract, its OK for us to pay bonus up front and spread it out.

The danger is doing this to players who bust or have career ending injuries right after guaranteeing their salary.

I'm fine with giving Brees his money up front. I just don't see him busting over the next 3 or 4 years.

The other danger is that a player goes Sullivan on you. Once he gets his money, he quits busting his ass.

If anyone should complain about restructuring it ought to be Benson, since he's basically guaranteeing the money and signing that check.

Shanle needs to be on that list somewhere.

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

I feel ya '76, but that's alot champagne on our beer budget...

Danno's repost of the Tripplet citation is important, we'll have to see what happens going into camp though...

Agree with everything there, but I'd like to see Vilma retained if we stay with the 4-3 and his contract redone to reflect what will need to be his part time status with his degenerative knee...

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

You don't have this kind of contract demand every year, Oak. But Loomis had no choice but to re-sign his franchise QB, and so here we are. Anyone with common sense knew the minute that deal was signed it was going to be a complicated process to fit the rest of the team under the cap, without losing a bunch of players. Of course he'll get us under the cap, he has no choice, but I want to see just how much can be done to fix our problems while trying to cut cost at the same time.

It WILL definitely be up to Drew to give in a little to make it work. I don't see how that's being brutal on him. It's just a fact.

Don't the new increased TV deals kick in this year?
I thought the extensions run from the start if the 2013 season meaning the cap should have been higher.Or are the league/owners are trying to build up a slush fund for when they loose the case with former players.

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

The TV deals won't have an affect on the cap until next year (2014), but there's still a lot of debate whether or not they will actually have as strong of an affect as some have suggested (~$140M).

Some cap analysts have stated that the cap will remain about the same (~$126M) in coming years, since the cap was artificially elevated earlier and in a sense the teams were borrowing salary cap room from the coming years.

So, I'm not sure if the teams' front offices even know what the cap will be in the coming years, and that'll surely make their job a lot more harder.

Not exactly, it does seem that way but its the game.

You give the 100mm contract back loaded "knowing" two things. Restructuring will happen, and the chances that the player plays all the years out is small... Much less at optimal performance. The players know this also and that is why you see the fright for signing bonuses (guaranteed money) The teams are ok with the bonuses because they are prorated for cap.

If Drew starts playing like Shanle he can be cut any off season.

Re: New Orleans Saints believe they will be able to handle cap issues
 

I don't think you can know that restructuring will happen. That's a loose way of doing business, and a sure fire way to lose players' respect. I don't think they would sign a contract if they thought they would HAVE to restructure at some point. 100 million doesn't just disappear by cutting him.