SmashMouth

Monday Morning Quarterback's Peter King sat down with "Over the Cap" founder Jason Fitzgerald for his column this week. Over the Cap is a website that tracks NFL contracts and each team's salary cap.

He didn't have glowing things to say about the Saints' salary cap situation.

"They probably would have begun 2016 $35 million over the cap if they remained status quo," Fitzgerald told MMQB." Even releasing the players with the worst contracts would have provided little relief. They were just a sinking ship taking on more water. The team really had no choice. The cap was going to ruin the franchise at some point, and they are at least able to turn some bad contracts into draft assets." Players like Thomas Morstead or Rafael Bush might be in danger of release at some point. I could see the team exploring a trade for Kenny Vaccaro if they can receive reasonable value for him this summer.

Moving forward, I would still be watching two big-name players closely in New Orleans. The immediate one is guard Jahri Evans, who has an $11 million cap hit. The second name is Drew Brees, not so much this year but in 2016. Brees will enter the final year of his contract in 2016 with a $27.6 million cap number. Brees will be 37. If the two sides cannot agree on a new deal by next year, I would anticipate that the Saints will be very open to trading Brees, who would likely still hold great value even in his late-30s. That would completely close the chapter on this era of Saints football, but it’s a move they should consider if it gets them the assets needed to turn over the organization. They won’t receive anything if they let him walk away.


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