Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Thanks Curtis for helping the team out! This clears up about four million of cap space.

Saints create some cap room by restructuring Lofton deal | ProFootballTalk

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Thanks Lofton for caring about our team with the cap situation. Looks like Loomis is working his freaky voodoo magic again!

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Moving the problems couple of years forward, but nevertheless, this is what is needed at the moment to get under the cap and free up some money to sign FAs.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Of course he's willing to make the change. It cost him nothing to do so.

Creative Accounting strikes again.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Shows he's willing to do what it takes to win, big time move..... Loomis bout to start doin work......

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Well it cost him a five million dollar bonus this year and spreads it out over the rest of the contract... I'd say it's respectable of him. Most players want their money now.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Championship!

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

He gets the 5 million immediately. The team gets to spread the cap hit for the bonus over 5 years.

Benson just wrote him a 5 million dollar check which was deposited into Mr Loftons checking account before the ink dried.

And we can get 15 million more by giving Brees, Grubbs and Evans the same type of "advance".

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Thanks Danno... I'll admit I don't understand all of the in's and out's of these restructure deals so I'm a little ignorant in regard to that. I apologize to Xan, you were right and I tried to correct you. Either way, "All Hail Loomis!"

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Curtis wants to win. And he can't win without a team.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

I love this guy!

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

No worries. I'm wrong so often, it's a pleasant surprise to be right.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Lofton has been a good trade for us.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

The fact that he signed that contract just last offseason and he was willing to restructure the year after says a lot. Good team guy. But at the same time I think Loomis uses this strategy with most of his signings. Thats why I'm never really nervous about out money situation.

He's pretty much just turning their bonuses into their base salary and spreading it out thru the length of the contract and taking the larger number (which is the base salary) and giving it to them up front as a bonus. Guys aren't going to turn down a 5-6mil check being deposited in the bank before they step on the field that season.

It seems like he structures all contracts in a way that allows him to do this. Therefore giving him a way to get under the cap when he needs to. His strategy is great and most GMs still haven't mastered it the way he has.

The biggest coup of all is if he can get Drew to restructure his deal....Drew's restructuring alone will make the biggest dent in that 20mil cap overage. His can make it much easier to get under and then some to possibly have enough make a run at some good Defensive FA's out there.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Thanks ! You are a Saint.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

I was talking about this tonight. I think it was in the books already when Drew first signed the deal. It makes everyone look great when they do these kind of deals. Loomis is really 5 years ahead when he lays contracts out. Too bad he can't predict when players over achieve and have to put out more than expected a la Carl Nicks.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

and so it starts. you go mickey you go

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

The chess game had begun!

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Curtis smells something fishy. Its a championshipo

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Yeah, but as great as it is at times when they announce something like this, this type of a strategy also has a very negative side to it. Pushing most of the big money by restructures to the latter years of players' contract will inevitably create situations like the Saints are now with Smith, where his cap number for next season will be about $14M, and the Saints will end up burning cap room whatever they decide to do with his contract.

I'm not saying I don't approve of Loomis' tactics, just that there are negatives to it, like there are virtually with every tactic you could come up with.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Now Brees needs to take a step back and help this team out. He needs to restructure his as well. Do not get me wrong by saying this, need is our bread and butter. The man DESERVES every damn penny of it, if we were in a different situation. We need help on both sides of the lines, he was getting killed or running for his life most of the time. The defense I don't have to go into detail about it.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

I get what your saying but at the same time. Next season his cap number is 14mil. But they have the option to release him, which is very likely because his production is not there and his age has caught up, they can simply release him lowering that cap number to 4mil instead of 14mil. Because you save 10mil by cutting him.

Loomis continues to push that cap number back to the later years because if you think about it most of these guys don't even get to the last 2 years of there contract unless they're a elite QB. And they make it up to the players by giving them those bonuses. And even if the Saints feel like they want to still keep a guy like Smith who's value on the market will not compare to what it would be if he were still under his original contract, they can release him trim 10mil off the cap and let him hit the market, offer him a new lower priced contract and if he feels like he can get more else where you're not really losing out because it not you're losing a key part of your team at this point of his career.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Again, thats totally backwards.

Benson is the one who will step up and convert some of Drews yearly bonuses to "signing bonus", which Drew gets immediately.

Players get MORE money by re-structuring. The TEAM assumes more risk.

Every player on this team is hoping and praying Loomis approaches them about re-structuring. It benefits the player, it doesn't harm them at all.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

But my point was that by restructuring Smith's contract last offseason the Saints are now out $4M at the least if they decide to release Smith. Now, $4M out of a $121M salary cap might not sound that much, but every dollar counts and you can get a really good player for $4M. And then when you multiply this situation - as in more player contracts than just one - you can find yourself quickly in a place where you're either fielding a team having an overpaid nucleus with diminishing skills supported by second hand talent or a team that is having millions taken from its salary cap annually because it has to release players with huge prorated signing bonuses on their contracts and again not having the money to sign/re-sign truly talented players at their prime.

Again, I'm not saying Loomis is doing things wrong - just reminding that there's a downside to all of this as well.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

I love u guys. My other favorite teams which is the N.B.A. Only SAINTS in football. I get on those message boards and its all bout people trying to be right and make the other look stupid. On here I feel like everybody is cool even semi FAM. Thats the same way that I felt when I took a visit to the N.O. back in 2003. I have to make it back.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Somebody tell that to Drew.

http://mirthbomb.com/wp-content/uplo...reporting1.jpg

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Welcome to the family man... Feel free to contribute any time! I know what you mean about other message boards, that's why this is the only one that I post on.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

:cool: I couldn't agree more! Most folks don't understand this.:cool:

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

FinSaint, you know your stuff buddy. The way Loomis does things is scary having to always be over the salary cap and restructure contracts every year. However, I trust in Loomis and hopefully we can get our cap situation a little easier to deal with in the coming years.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Danno: Where can you find information like this? From what you stated it sounds like for every payout it gives the Saints that much more in salary cap. Why not pay all of the players we want to keep some up front money? Say....200 milllion dollars worth.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Especially if he stayed with the Falcons. I wonder how he felt about that? Since the Falcons made it to the NFC championship ill bet he is foaming at the mouth. Bad career move? Imagine what the Falcons defense would have been like if he stayed there. I for one am glad he decided to stay and restructure his deal. He is going to be NASTY!!!! in Rex Ryans 3-4 scheme.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

In that situation I am certain they would just let him go to another team. There has already been alot of talk about if he is even going to be on this years squad. I guess only time will tell, but as it was stated earlier Loomis plans years ahead and I am sure he is prepared for that to happen.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

There in lies the problem with these restructures, because whenever you are converting base salaries into signing bonuses you are, of course, making the base salary cap hit smaller for a particular year(s) and the yearly prorated signing bonus cap hit is usually very acceptable addition to that reduced base salary - especially when we are talking about contracts that have 4+ years still left on them. But the problem arises when those latter year base salaries, which are usually much higher than the initial years' base salaries, start to kick in. If you release the player with such a contract by cutting him, the team will usually lose a lot of cap room because of the prorated signing bonuses will still have to be counted towards the team's salary cap (not all for all the remaining years on the contract, but still a considerable amount when talking about the bigger contracts). And if you find a willing trading partner for such a player, while the other team takes over the responsibility of that player's contract - the original team is still on the hook when it comes to those prorated signing bonuses.

So, like Danno already said, every player wants to restructure their contracts because it means immediate payment to their bank accounts in the form of those signing bonuses and it's good for the team on the short run because through such a moves they can reduce their salary cap for the coming season while pushing a lot of the money to the latter years of a contract - but on the long run it can be very costly because of the scenarios I listed above.

Re: Saints restructure Lofton's deal
 

Well that makes total sense, never even thought about that. So it goes to back to his original greedy deal. Damn us for that for years to come