vtiger72

The Saints have to figure out if they believe the window is still open or if it has closed. The cap situation isn't pretty, but can be fixed. The key is what do you push down the road.

Brees is a player that could create some room, by turning 10 million of 17 million to signing bonus and addiing 2 additional years to the deal. However, how much money would need to be guaranteed in those 2 years for Brees to agree to it? If he plans to retire at the end of 2016, probably very little- but if he thinks he would sign another deal, he's going to want a significant amount to extend. So while Brees's deal is an easy one to look at to create room, the fact there's only 2015-2016 left on it, it would take an extension to create that room. If the Saints believe the window is closed, it may not be worth it to punt the problem into future years.

The same could be said of a deal like Galette. His deal has a number of years left, so if the Saints need to create room, his is one that could move some salary into signing bonus- but it's going to move his cap hit into future years.

Teams can always move money, but sooner or later it will hinder moves. If the Saints see themselves a few moves away from another run, then it makes sense to create cap space for 2015 and worry about the problems later. If they feel the need to hit the reset button, they can cut problems and clear the future cap so the future looks bright, but it likely means little new talent and even less than what was on the 2014 team for 2015 before the reset happens.