More Saints money: they’ve created $7.015M by reworking DT David Onyemata and OT James Hurst’s contracts.
More Rams money: they’ve created $12M in cap by reworking Edge Leonard Floyd’s contract (and more via Andrew Whitworth).
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 16, 2022
Bang: the New Orleans Saints are officially under the salary cap on Wednesday morning through two more contract restructures, saving a combined $7.016 million in salary conversions with David Onyemata and James Hurst, per ESPN’s Field Yates. Well, they’re under the cap for now, at this moment in time. It’s complicated.
New Orleans is going to take on almost $16 million Wednesday afternoon once their contracts with Terron Armstead and Jameis Winston; both deals had void years written into them, meaning the deferred payments will accelerate onto the books for 2022 if neither player signs an extension. That will happen at the start of the new league year at 3 p.m. CT. Assuming that remains likely, the Saints will need to come up with even more cap space.
And more restructures are probably their path to getting there. They can free up more resources in restructures with Taysom Hill (up to $7.2 million), Demario Davis ($4.2 million), Malcolm Jenkins ($3 million), and Wil Lutz ($1.3 million). Releases or pay cuts are also possible, but maybe not likely for those cornerstone players.
But we do need to consider whether this dead money for Armstead and Winston actually triggers this year. So much hinges on Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson’s trade decision — Armstead specifically has been said to be monitoring that situation, with a return to the Saints in the cards should Watson be traded there. Working out a restructure with Watson upon a trade to fit his contract (including an initial $35 million cap hit in 2022) on the books wouldn’t be difficult.
If Watson chooses to come to New Orleans, the Saints could act quickly and work out an extension with Armstead to lower his cap hit while keeping him under contract, avoiding any dead money altogether. Winston still has a $3 million hit but the Saints could also pivot to him should Watson choose to go somewhere else.
We’ll just have to wait and see how that plays out. The latest estimates have the Saints under the 2022 salary cap by about $4 million, with Spotrac estimating $4,032,057 in cap space and Over The Cap positing $4,024,781. But neither of those figures include the still-undefined extension with Bradley Roby, which will lower his $10.1 million cap hit dramatically. Assuming the Saints move as much of that into future years as possible, they could have as much as $11 million in cap space. We just don’t know for sure.
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