Early this offseason, the New Orleans Saints designed Michael Thomas and Jameis Winston as post-June 1 cuts, which is a mechanism that allows teams to release up to players (making them free agents) while spreading out the salary cap costs over this year and the next. The catch is that those savings won’t be felt until after June 1, and they’ll be offset by other players taking Thomas and Winston’s place on the accounting books.
So with that date rapidly approaching, here’s how much those moves will save the Saints against the salary cap. Winston, who signed with the Cleveland Browns early in free agency, will still count against the cap by $3.38 million in 2024 and $7.3 million in 2025. Because his cap charge to this point has been $4.59 million, the Saints will receive a cap credit of $1.21 million on June 2.
They’ll receive the same savings for Thomas; until now, his 2024 cap hit has been $12.4 million. It’ll drop to $8.9 million for the rest of this season while leaving behind a $11.1 million dead money charge in 2025. Like a dozen other players from last year’s Saints team, he has yet to sign with a new squad.
So think of it this way. The Saints are going to receive a combined $2.42 million in salary cap savings this weekend while carrying about $18.4 million in dead money on the books in 2025 for both Thomas and Winston. That sounds like a lot, but with the 2025 salary cap projected to reach at least $260 million we’re talking about 7% of the cap, at most, going to two players no longer on the team.
What about this year? Right now, the Saints are sitting under the cap by roughly $5.7 million after signing all but one of their draft picks (second-round cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry, whose net cost to sign will ultimately be about $550,000). They’ll be in the clear by more than $5 million after getting these cap credits for Thomas and Winston, so it’s possible the Saints could make a trade or sign some more free agents before training camp with those extra resources. They could also choose to sit on that money and roll it over to help clear the 2025 salary cap, which would be responsible, but it’s more fun to speculate about new additions over the summer.
Update: The Saints signed McKinstry to his rookie contract, though the exact salary cap hit is yet to be reported. And as observed by Locked On Saints host Ross Jackson, the Saints didn’t save much against the cap on June 2. That’s because salary cap hits for Shane Lemieux ($1,055,000) and Jordan Howden ($996,682) took Thomas and Winston’s place on the top 51 contracts, offsetting the savings for a net gain of only about $368,318. OTC estimates the Saints to be under the cap by $5,473,316.
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