WhoDat!656

The New Orleans Saints entered free agency with very little cap room to sign free agents. But General Manager Mickey Loomis has managed to ink cornerback Keenan Lewis and tight end Benjamin Watson while making serious runs at outside linebacker Victor Butler and cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha by being shrewd with his cap dollars.

After last week's signings, the Saints are unofficially about $2 million under the salary cap.

Lewis signed a five-year deal worth up to $26.3 million ($10.5 million in guarantees, including a $6 million signing bonus). Because Lewis' first-year base salary is $1 million, he'll only count about $2.2 million against the 2013 salary cap.

Meanwhile, Watson's three-year contract is worth $4.95 million, including a $1.2 million signing bonus, according to ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas. Watson's base salary is slated to be $950,000, leaving his 2013 cap hit at about $1.35 million.

According to Yasinskas, Watson's 2014 salary jumps to $1 million and he has a $250,000 roster bonus and a $50,000 workout bonus. Watson's salary will be $1.2 million in 2015, and he'll also have a $250,000 roster bonus and a $50,000 workout bonus.

Yasinskas also reported the salaries of receiver/special teams captain Courtney Roby and linebacker Ramon Humber, both of whom re-signed one-year deals last week. Roby will earn $905,000. Because the Saints designated Roby as a veteran minimum benefit player, his cap figure for this year will only be $555,000.

And Humber's deal is worth is worth $740,000, although he'll only count $550,000 against the cap.


New Orleans Saints free agent contract numbers rolling in, according to report | NOLA.com

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

Rugby Saint II

OMG..............we're broke!

TheOak

$2M under the hard cap = $1M over where we need to be to start the season.