Saints, Andrus Peat agree to reworked deal to save over $9M against salary cap

Per multiple reports, the #Saints and guard Andrus Peat have agreed to a re-worked deal. Here’s what that means, via @RossJacksonNOLA:

Well, that answers one of the biggest remaining contract questions for the New Orleans Saints. Left guard Andrus Peat was expected to count for over $18 million in 2023, but now that number will be much love. Per Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com, the Saints and Peat revised his deal, dropping his overall salary cap hit and saving the team around $9.5 million. The report was then confirmed by NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill.

Peat’s name was consistently mentioned by analysts as a possible post-June 1 cut. However, that would have put the Saints in a couple of binds. The first of which is that they have no clear successor behind him at left guard unless they wanted to sacrifice the versatility of offensive lineman James Hurst. The second is that even though they would have saved over $11 million with that approach, the relief would not have come until June 2. The need for cap room is more urgent, with free agency underway and the NFL draft in six weeks.

We suggested recently that New Orleans could approach Peat for a pay cut and rework the deal that way. This does redistribute the money in such a way that New Orleans can plan around how they want to approach it following this year’s short-term cap savings. It’s saving the team more money than a typical restructure would have.

Now that his contract is set to void after 2023, per OverTheCap.com, the interesting play when it comes to Peat now will be next season. Do the Saints assume $13.6 million of dead cap? If not, they could work to extend him on a team-friendly deal or even approach him with a proposition appropriate to his position and role like quarterback Jameis Winston.

This could also mean that New Orleans expects to pick up right guard Cesar Ruiz’s fifth-year option. Otherwise, they would be entering 2023 with both starting guards in contract years. That seems like something a team would want to prevent, and New Orleans has an easy mechanism to avoid that being that Ruiz was a first-round draft pick. But that’s a decision for later. For now, the Saints get to enjoy some much-needed salary cap relief after their busy Wednesday.

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