AsylumGuido

Very good article. Pretty much the same thing I have been preaching the past few months. It includes much of the same sort of factual material that I have shared to prove that salary cap issues are history and dead money is not an issue at all.

Salary Cap ‘Hell’ has Come and Gone for the New Orleans Saints

There’s a phrase that’s been on the mind of any involved fan of the New Orleans Saints and seemingly every bougie national analyst who looks down their nose at the team in the Crescent City: Cap Hell.

That nebulous threat of not being able to sign free agents or properly manage the salary cap has been hovering around Airline Drive for years now, but what many observers don’t realize is that it’s already come to pass.

Cap hell isn’t coming in the days after Drew Brees hangs up his cleats, at least not like we’re imagining it. It’s already come and is on its way out.

Life in cap hell has been the Saints ranking 31st or 32nd in salary cap space every year from 2013 to 2016. It’s been seeing huge swathes of valuable salary cap space spent on players who aren’t on the roster like Jimmy Graham and Junior Galette, or forfeiting cap space to Drew Brees until it wouldn’t be as badly-needed. But the important thing to take away is that 2017 is the year the Saints will escape cap hell.

As of writing, my projection for the 2017 salary cap is around $169.7 million, an increase from the $155.27 million it currently tops out at. Rumors from inside the NFL estimate the salary cap to rest at $166 million, but that’s a conservative guess – which has been common in the last few years.

Read the rest here

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

stickman

I really hope that's accurate.

AsylumGuido

It is absolutely accurate. Don't listen to the idiots that do not understand cap accounting.

lee909

I agree with what he is saying. I said last year the big contract were coming to a end or a point in which they were shedable. The one thing i will say is that we will only have 2 DT on the roster next year and Snead needs a new deal. The year after Delvin Breaux and Kenny Vaccaro need deals and Brees contract will need looked at again. And all of that will eat a chunk of cash.

K Major

"Linebacker Dannell Ellerbe’s contract voids out if he plays less than 80 percent of snaps, which would turn into $3.2 million in savings."

Good information to know.

saintshrimp

i dont recall anyone saying anthing about next year or in the future we were talking about this year and the previous two before that is why this team has sufferd. it may get better here soon yes but loomis and company continue to waste money to epic proportion its unreal.i dont think they have learned anything from the problems they created in the past 3 years.why? because they continue to do the same stuff that got them in this predicament in the first place. Time will tell but the Spiller decison is just example of having my doubts they learned anything at all. next year it will more than likely be Byrd and ellerbee,laurennitis and possibly but unlikely Fleener

AsylumGuido

saintshrimp

we roll our eyes to you too

AsylumGuido

Say hello to that mouse in your pocket.

burningmetal

Yeah, we know. They raise the cap every couple of years. And inflation keeps going up in all these contracts. All teams are under the same cap, which means wherever we rank in cap space now is what we'll rank next year. Drew's deal helped. But the cap raising doesn't mean a whole lot when you have to compete on the free agent market with teams who have more money than you.

We heard this same crap the last time they raised the cap. A lot of good that did. We're not in all out cap hell now that Drew and the Saints finally made a deal that creates some space. Good on them for that.

As far as dead money is concerned, I always say that if you need to release a player who is under performing, you can't worry about the dead money. You accept that you made a mistake and you cut your losses. But to say that dead money, in general, means nothing is inaccurate. It represents money wasted that could have been spent going forward on improving the team, that is instead floating around with players who aren't even on your team.

Nobody is perfect, and you won't always hit home runs when you sign people. That's understood. But when you lead the world in dead money it does reflect poorly on your personnel decisions.

The Galette case was different. But you can't make excuses for every one of these contracts. Unless you are the guy who wrote this article... Then you just slap a coat of sugar on it, and call it a day.

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