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Agent's Take: The 3 NFL teams facing the worst salary cap situations

By Joel Corry | Former Sports Agent

February 9, 2016 4:20 pm ET

New Orleans Saints

Salary cap overage: $11.049 Million (before start of waiver period)
Comparatively speaking the Saints are in good shape with the cap. There was a $23 million overage this time last year.

The Saints didn't waste any time by releasing five-time All-Pro guard Jahri Evans, linebackers David Hawthorne and Ramon Humber and wide receiver Seantavius Jones once the waiver period began the day after Super Bowl 50 (February 8). $3.1 million of cap room was gained from Evans, whose $1 million third-day-of-the-league-year roster bonus (March 11) and $2 million of his $3.8 million base salary were set to become fully guaranteed on February 10, the third day of the waiver period. Releasing Hawthorne freed up $2.25 million of cap space.

The departure of the four players created $6.851 million cap room collectively to bring the overage down to $4.198 million. $7.527 million of dead money (salary cap charges for players no longer on a team's roster) was generated in the process. The Saints already have $22.32 million of 2016 dead money, which includes $12.1 million from Junior Galette's release last July.

The elephant in the room is Drew Brees' league-high $30 million 2016 cap number as he enters the final year of the five-year, $100 million deal he signed in 2012 to become the NFL's first $20 million per-year player and reset the league's pay scale. $10.85 million of his $19.75 million base salary becomes fully guaranteed without an offset on Feb. 10.

This means the Saints wouldn't be able to reduce the guaranteed money owed to Brees in the extremely unlikely event he is released, which would leave the Saints with a $20.85 million cap charge, by the amount of his new deal with another team. In essence, Brees would receive the $10.85 million from the Saints as well as the full salary from his new contract with another club.

The 37-year-old may not be willing to do the Saints any favors with a massive pay cut in an contract extension, like Tom Brady has done with the New England Patriots. Brees had acrimonious negotiations with the Saints as a franchise player in 2012, which led to him filing and winning a grievance against the team clarifying whether franchise tags applied across teams or were specific to teams. Brees is also a former member of the NFLPA's executive committee and was a named plaintiff in an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL during the 2011 lockout. Realistically, $7 million to $10 million of cap space can be gained from an extension depending on the deal's structure, total and length.

An easy salary conversion can be made with Cameron Jordan's contract. $4.8 million of cap room will be created by converting the defensive lineman's fully guaranteed $6 million roster bonus (due March 13) into signing bonus.

There will be other cuts made by Saints. Cornerback Brandon Browner tweeted a couple days before Super Bowl 50 that he won't be with the Saints next season. Apparently, he has been informed of his eventual release. Browner, who signed for $15 million over three years in the offseason, set a single season NFL record in 2015 with 24 penalties.


Agent's Take: The 3 NFL teams facing the worst salary cap situations - CBSSports.com

More info covering moves involving Dannell Ellerbe Marques Colston, Zach Strief Byrd C.J Spiller

hagan714

Shane Richardson @ShaneNFL

With G Jahri Evans release, #Saints now have an eye-popping $21.9M in dead money against their 2016 cap (14.6% of their cap space).

Jahri Evans, David Hawthorne, Ramon Humber Cut by Saints: Comments, Reaction | Bleacher Report

so when all is said and done we could have 20% of our cap involved in street walking dead money

We need another solid draft. We need to generate a few additional picks along the way.

repeat after me 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017

jeanpierre

See, glad to have Brees as our quarterback, but Tom Condon and Brees forgot when we guaranteed his contract coming over from San Diego with big question marks about his shoulder...

We could've kept some players (i.e. Carl Nicks) who are gone because of Brees' over gratuitous contract...

And don't think for one minute that didn't affect his credibility in the locker room or especially during his pregame rally...

It was Payton's scheme and a team effort that made Brees the top passer in the league; but that's not what Condon would have you think...

What is really incredulous to me is when some of these sports hacks criticize the Saints Front Office for not putting a better team around Brees for more championships...

While Loomis has really screwed the pooch on some awful free agent signings, Brees EQUALLY shares in the failures and limited TEAM SUCCESS...

Glad we have Drew, but Brees should've borrowed a page from Tom Brady as it would have gone a long way in the team's locker room...

It's not that my way is the right way, I just make the right way my way...

burningmetal

Your opinion probably won't be very popular, JP, but I agree with the majority of your sentiment. I don't consider Drew to be a bad guy, or greedy like some might think when I say this, but if you want to compete for championships you have to be a little flexible in your demands.

So it's all about what you want. Do you want the most money possible, or do you want to get a fair deal for you that is also fair for the team in their ability to put better players around you.

I often hear the argument that if I, or we, as fans were put in the same situation we would want as much money as possible. Because nobody turns down money. That's one of the lamest and most annoying forms of argument. Who among us has ever been offered 20 million a year? If you're making, say, 15 dollars an hour and your boss asks you to take 12, of course you're not going to do that. That's a huge deal when you're making that little.

These athletes aren't flipping burgers, making pizzas and mopping floors. Nor are they working off shore or working on cars. They are making millions and they play in a league that has a salary cap. So do you want to win or not? I'm not telling anyone what to do with their money. But you can't pretend you aren't hurting the team when you take up that much salary space.

People will argue the value of the QB position. Yes, it is the singularly most important position, but that doesn't mean that it's everything, as evidenced by this past super bowl. If you have a collective unit that is strong enough, you can overcome bad QB play. But Drew is still good. So if he opens up just enough space, it could make all the difference. That's assuming that Loomis can manage not to blow money on another overrated player.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that, the NFL would fine and suspend me.

Euphoria

Yeah if I knew this or next year was going to be my last and I had a 30 million dollar pay day looking me in the face. Unless they cut me I may have to take that check.

Danno

He'll restructure. He'd be a fool not to want more guaranteed money and a longer contract.

Unless he just hates it here, he'll restructure.

burningmetal

I suspect he will, too. That's why I'm not hating on him. I think he'll make a sensible deal that won't really hurt him but will clearly help us. It would have been nice if something could have been worked out sooner to maximize our financial resources while Drew is still here, instead of waiting till the last year when the bank is about to break if we don't do something.

vpheughan

"We may have Dead Money but as long as we're not hurting tomorrow!"

At Dougins, 2016

hagan714

trade lmao lets beat that one around yet again

AsylumGuido

There is no doubt Brees will restructure and it will undoubtedly be very similar to the restructure done with Brady by the Patriots. The point is that it has not been financially feasible until this off-season and will not be done until Loomis has an idea of all other constraints. Any restructure will mean more guaranteed money for Brees (just like Brady's deal) and Loomis would rather keep the increases as low as possible. The more he knows about free agents and the draft, the more he will know about how the Brees deal would need to be structured.