[jwplayer eCHd7tlI-ThvAeFxT]
We’ve got a live one: the New Orleans Saints shuffled some salary cap resources early Saturday morning, with NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reporting that they modified their contract with defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins. Rankins was set to earn almost $7.69 million while playing on his fifth-year option in 2020, and that’s still the case. But the Saints got creative to clear $4 million this season.
They added two voidable years onto Rankins’ contract, which was set to expire at the end of the fiscal year next March. New Orleans also converted $6 million of Rankins’ guaranteed salary into a signing bonus, which he’ll receive immediately rather than in incremental game checks over the next few months.
The end result: Rankins has a 2020 salary cap figure of just $3.69 million in 2020, and a dead money hit of $4 million in 2021 should he leave in free agency. If the Saints are able to re-sign him to a long-term contract, he’ll be due at least $2 million in both 2021 and 2022.
So how much salary cap space do the Saints now have to work with? The analysts at Over The Cap estimate $6.08 million in available funds, while the team at Spotrac puts them at $5.1 million. Our in-house spreadsheet has the Saints at $5.4 million below the salary cap.
The Saints could simply be looking to add more resources as they move into the season; they’ll need this cap space to sign free agents after tryouts and maybe make a move at the NFL trade deadline in October. On the other hand, this could be a prelude to a contract extension with Alvin Kamara, which has been expected for several days now per the latest reports.
As for Rankins: this doesn’t change his standing with the team in any way. He already had a reputation as a team-first player, and he’s performed like one of their best playmakers on defense — when healthy. His name did reportedly come up in trade talks at the roster cuts deadline, but nothing came of it. If he can string together 16 productive games in 2020, he could end up back at the negotiating table before free agency next year.
[vertical-gallery id=37715]