Ryan Ramczyk agreed to cut his 2025 salary this week, which sets him up for retirement. But how does it set up the New Orleans Saints and the salary cap? Let’s break it down.
To start, Ramczyk agreed to waive his $18 million base salary for the 2025 season in exchange for the veteran’s minimum at $1,255,000. Because he’s being forced into a medical retirement, he isn’t getting that money either way, but doing it like this gives the Saints immediate savings of about $16.7 million.
That left Ramczyk with a $12.3 million cap hit, and it puts the Saints at roughly $326 million in cap commitments for 2025. The NFL hasn’t yet announced where the cap will be this offseason but most experts agree it will fall at about $270 million. That means the Saints are probably in the hole by $56 million, or somewhere close to it.
This was just the first of several expected moves they’ll make this offseason. Restructures are coming for young, productive players — guys like Erik McCoy (saving up to $6.7 million), Cesar Ruiz ($5.2 million), and Carl Granderson ($5.2 million). Tougher decisions are ahead for older veterans like Cameron Jordan, Taysom Hill, Demario Davis and Tyrann Mathieu, all of whom have salary cap hits between $20 million and $10 million.
And the elephant in the room is Derek Carr. He has the biggest cap hit on the team at $51.4 million, and he’s made it clear he won’t accept a pay cut. The Saints could restructure his deal and save $30 million but that effectively locks him in as their starting quarterback for 2025 and 2026. Don’t bet on him waiving his no-trade clause to join a new team, either. It’ll cost as much to cut him as to keep him, at least until June 2, but that would mean finding a way to get under the cap and work through free agency and the NFL draft with a $51.4 million albatross around the neck. That just isn’t realistic.
The decisions Mickey Loomis has made have put the Saints in a bind. Overpaying Carr like this and restructuring aging players so many times has taken a toll, and now the Saints have to pay it.
[lawrence-auto-related count=5]