exile

The New Orleans Saints have restructured cornerback Keenan Lewis' contract, according to a source, as the Saints are near the salary cap ceiling.

The Saints shifted some money around for Lewis to give the team $1.2 million in cap savings in 2014 and $1 million in savings for 2015. The team turned $2.1 million into bonus money in 2014 to spread the cap hit.

New Orleans Saints restructure contract of cornerback Keenan Lewis | NOLA.com

dizzle88

Making money for graham, expect a couple more restructures

stickman

I wonder how it feels signing a contract with a team knowing they are just going to redo it in as a season or two?

brees84

One way or another he gets his money.

lee909

Fantastic,you are getting paid more in guaranteed money and a signing bonus.More cash into the pocket quickly.If a player is clever and has a good agent then that lump sum of money is making more money.

Utah_Saint

I've wondered that same thing. I figure it must not be too bad since Loomis does it all the time, everybody signs and nobody complains (publicly at least).

SaintFanInATLHELL

It's more than that. Every big money contract in the NFL is signed with the expectation that the contract will not be completed as written. Backloading gives a balance point between the team, who wants to spread the cap hit over the long term, and the player, who wants his money up front. There's always a point somewhere in the middle of the contract where it's cheaper to get rid of the player than to continue to pay. At that point, restructuring happens where the player gets some more up front money from that back end in trade for lowering the cap hit of the balloon payments on the back end of the contract.

Note that in every restructure, including this one, the player gets money on the spot. So from the player standpoint it's always getting more money now instead of hoping to be around long enough to get it later.

So it probably feels pretty good to know as a player that you're playing well enough that the team wants to keep you and wants put more money up front where their mouth is.

SFIAH

Super Bowl Championships: New Orleans Saints:1, Carolina:0, Atlanta Chokers: STILL ZERO

Only Atlanta choked in an unchokable situation... Life is definitely good.

Jack Vegas

We already have the money for Graham so that's not what it is. I expect another signing is on the horizon.

ScottF

Good.
Grubbs, Evans and Bunkley on the horizon

Audiotom

Amen - Lewis, like Strief is willing to work with the system to make a winner
good character goes a long way

Now if Drew would take the hit next year

maybe another FA in the wings wide receiver?

Loomis knows exactly what he is doing, he's just lining it up