No team has weaponized automatically-voided contract years (also sometimes called “ghost years”) like the New Orleans Saints. Their go-to tool has helped them navigate some hazardous waters, working around the salary cap to put the best team together and hold onto as much talent possible. But it’s not without costs. Whenever a contract voids, any prorated payments (often leftover signing bonus payouts kicked down the road) accelerate to the immediate offseason if the player doesn’t sign a new deal. And, depending on when the contract is scheduled to void, it could take the franchise tag out of play.
Teams can pick any date they want in determining when future contract years will void. It could be two days after the Super Bowl or two days before free agency begins, or anywhere in-between. Most teams have preferred to schedule these void triggers shortly after the Super Bowl, giving them time to evaluate the player’s season and decide whether they should be part of their long-term plans.
Putting the trigger date there also places it before the franchise tag window opens. That benefits the team in case this is a player they badly want to retain, keeping the franchise tag (and the transition tag, which works similarly but only brings right of first refusal to another team’s contract offer) in play during contract negotiations.
But we’ve seen the Saints make concessions to players in scheduling the void date as late as possible — contracts with Terron Armstead and Jameis Winston both include void years for accounting purposes, and the date triggering their expiration is March 16. That’s the same day free agency kicks off, and it’s also a week after the franchise tag window slams shut. So both Armstead and Winston were given concessions that they would either re-sign with the Saints or hit the open market so they could take the best possible offer, dodging the tag altogether.
Side note: that’s also the case for Tre’Quan Smith, whose contract was restructured to add void years late in 2021 and will expire on the same date as Armstead and Winston. New Orleans was pressed for cap space late in the 2021 season with so many players on injured reserve and unavailable in COVID-19 protocols. But, to be frank, Smith wouldn’t be considered for the tag either way. He’s not getting paid the $19 million the tag is valued this year by the Saints or anyone else. We’ll write that one off as the Saints choosing to keep things simple.
But let’s take a look at which other Saints players currently have void years written into their contracts, and how that could come into play with the franchise tag down the road: