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Next year will be interesting!

Things haven’t gone as planned for the New Orleans Saints this season. They might very well still end up in the place they were planning to land — atop the NFC South — but nobody could have imagined they would take this path to get there. At 5-8, it has been a wildly disappointing campaign for one of the preseason Super Bowl favorites. That came to a head this week, when Sean Payton responded to the team’s fourth consecutive loss at home,1 a 41-10 shellacking by Carolina, by releasing reserve wideout Joe Morgan and benching safety Kenny Vaccaro,2 the team’s 2013 first-round pick.

The second-year safety was at the core of what was supposed to be the most improved aspect of this team. Vaccaro, who impressed as a rookie before suffering a broken ankle in Week 16 last season, was shockingly joined at safety by former Bills Pro Bowler Jairus Byrd, arguably the highest-rated defensive player available at the beginning of free agency. Even though the Saints were only a few million dollars under the salary cap and hadn’t yet resolved the contract status of star tight end Jimmy Graham, the Saints gave Byrd a six-year, $54 million deal in hopes of forming the league’s best safety tandem east of Seattle.

It didn’t work. Byrd was wildly disappointing before going on injured reserve with a torn meniscus in early October, often disappearing against the run while failing to pick up any interceptions. Vaccaro didn’t fare much better, as we saw when Jonathan Stewart ran right by his vacated edge for a 69-yard touchdown last week.

Free-agent signings fail and impressive rookies disappoint, but this has been particularly egregious for the Saints because of how they financially leveraged this season. The Saints were about as all in to win in 2014 as a team can be, given how they structured the deals of Byrd and a number of other high-priced veterans on their roster. That would have been fine by Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis if it had delivered a title, but instead, there’s a good chance next year’s Saints team will have less talent than this one. A lot less.

Blown Up on the Bayou: How the Saints Ended Up in Salary-Cap Hell «

saintsfan1976

Just finished reading this on Grantland.

I'm less worried about restructuring and more worried about acquiring more talent next season.

WhoDat!656

Debunking Bill Barnwell’s “Blown Up on the Bayou”

Are the New Orleans Saints in Cap Hell? | B&G

lee909

Some good reads in both articles

One showing a positive light the other making it look worse than it is.
The truth lies in the middle though,if Galette and Byrd dont produce we will be stuck with the high contracts for players not playing to that level,much like Will Smiths final years.

joker-saint

Perhaps they should stay away from big names and dig deeper into the undrafted rookie free agents? It seems as though every time they take a chance on big name players those players let them down. Yet on the other side this team has picked up some dang good RFA's.

Danno

Our punter is the 9th highest paid player on our roster.

Thats right, our punter.

And he has the 13th biggest cap figure for 2015.

Thats right, our frigging punter is a top 15 cap hit next year. Are you kidding me?

spkb25

We are stuck through next year, but should be okay come 16, unless we start pushing shot from next year to 16 and beyond. But in truth it isn't like we can't win with these guys they just have to play

hagan714

there are bigger issue with expenditures than the punter.

so a annual pro bowl punter and without a doubt one of the best in the nFL year in and year out is a waste of money? plus he one of the top kickers in the NFL for touch backs. sorry i do not see the issue right now.

Now having JR on the cheap and giving him new contract does not rub you the wrong way? We already had cap issues? JR is a one year wonder so far and has done nothing to earn that contract. I am still not sold on him as a three down OLB at all. That is a major issue my book.

Jr ranks up with one of the stupidest moves the saints have ever done cap wise. he is not a game changer on his own. that contract money should have gone else where. bank rolling it for Jordan would have been smarter.

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins

hagan714

restructuring is one thing but extensions are yet another way to spread that hit out also. i am thinking drew here.

Talent needs while dealing with cap issue? answer draft!

saints need a year or two of acquiring more picks to improve their batting average in the draft. nothing wrong with rolling in 9 or ten rookies for a couple years. it lets players know they have to earn their jobs because your seriously looking.

selective drafting high and this shot gun approach in later rounds is not working,

This may end up a perfect year to try something new for the saints.

If we end up in the top of the draft trade back.

try bring in a lower 1st and high 2nd. add in multiple picks next. If your lucky an additional late 2nd or at the least 2 3rds vs our standard method of drafting. back loaded draft with multi picks.

Draft is a great way to deal with cap issues, dead money plus rookie contract is usually cheaper than veteran dead weight cap hits.

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins

saintsfan1976

Great example is St Louis. What they were able to accomplish in the RGIII trade


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