With the new league year right around the corner, the New Orleans Saints continue to chip away at their salary cap overages. They began the offseason approximately $76 million over the league’s limit, but took a big step toward compliance with restructures to Michael Thomas, Ryan Ramczyk, and Andrus Peat’s deals. Now, the Saints take another step forward by restructuring the contracts of defensive ends Cameron Jordan and Tanoh Kpassagnon.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the moves will free up an additional $12,445,412. This should leave the Saints over the cap by somewhere around $32 million. Contract restructures are a common offseason tool used by the New Orleans front office. General manager Mickey Loomis and vice president of football operations Khai Harley often have these mechanisms built into contracts well ahead of the reorientation of a player’s base salary or bonuses.
The Saints still have several simple restructures they can turn to as they get under the NFL’s salary cap limit before the new league year begins on March 16. Some of those options include offensive weapon Taysom Hill, cornerback Marshon Lattimore (whose contract could open up over half of the remaining overages), and running back Alvin Kamara.
New Orleans could also get crafty with the fifth-year option of defensive end Marcus Davenport, much like they did with Lattimore’s option last season and Sheldon Rankins’ a year earlier. With Davenport being an extension candidate in the near future, pushing some of his fifth-year option guarantees into future years would not be a bad option.
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