Tag: andrus peat

Saints decline fifth-year option for RG Cesar Ruiz, making him a free agent in 2024

Saints decline fifth-year option for right guard Cesar Ruiz, making him a free agent in 2024. He’s now entering a contract year:

Well that’s disappointing. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that the New Orleans Saints are declining to exercise the fifth-year option for right guard Cesar Ruiz, their first-round pick in the 2020 NFL draft. He’ll now become a free agent in 2024 along with left guard Andrus Peat, whose contract was reworked earlier this offseason.

It’s not too surprising. Ruiz was a liability through his first two years in New Orleans, and though he made impressive strides last season he ended the year with a foot injury and needs to show he can rebound from it to continue playing at a high level.

Take that with the cost involved — if the Saints had picked up Ruiz’s option they would have been on the hook for more than $14 million in 2024 — and it makes more sense to see if a long-term contract extension at a lower rate isn’t the better move.

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Look Ahead: 33 Saints players are entering contract years in 2023

Looking ahead: At least 33 Saints players are entering contract years in 2023, including projected starters like Cameron Jordan, Michael Thomas, and Andrus Peat:

It’s been a hectic two weeks for the New Orleans Saints in free agency, and it sure looks like we’re in for more of the same this time next year. At least 33 players are entering the final year of their contracts with the Saints in 2023. For many players, that’s going to be motivation to play their best football in hopes of earning an extension.

Many of these 2024 free agents were just signed to one-year deals in recent days and weeks, and they’ll be up for similar offers again. Others are former Saints draft picks or free agent acquisitions hoping to close out their career in black and gold. It shouldn’t shock anyone if a couple of players sign extensions before the 2023 season kicks off. It’ll also be easy for the Saints to retain many of these pending free agents thanks to their restricted or exclusive rights status.

That’s enough table-setting. Let’s run through the list of players competing for a contract-year pay raise, with help from Over the Cap:

Predicting the Saints’ 2023 starting offense after first wave of free agency

Predicting the New Orleans Saints’ 2023 starting offense after first wave of free agency signings, re-signings, and roster moves:

The first wave of free agency is in the books, but the New Orleans Saints did more to keep their offense together in the first week of veteran signings rather than bringing in upgrades from the open market. Sure, they found a new starting quarterback in Derek Carr — but the biggest moves the Saints accomplished was holding onto starters like wide receiver Michael Thomas, left guard Andrus Peat, and tight end Juwan Johnson.

But what does the depth chart look like at this point in the offseason? What should it look like on offense? Let’s break it down by each position to get an idea of where more additions should take place:

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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Andrus Peat’s contract is the last in-house hurdle for the Saints salary cap

Andrus Peat’s contract is the last in-house hurdle for the Saints salary cap. New Orleans is already under the cap, but a move here helps them a lot:

It was always going to come to this. Andrus Peat’s contract with the New Orleans Saints is their last in-house salary cap hurdle, which is kind of poetic given how frustrating that deal has been over the years. Few Saints starters have missed as many games with injuries as Peat while turning in up-and-down game tape and ranking among the team’s top earners. Of course this is their final challenge to deal with.

Right now, Peat has the highest salary cap hit on the team for the 2023 season at $18,371,000. The Saints have two options in front of them: restructuring Peat’s hefty $11.8 million base salary into a new signing bonus and committing to him for another year or two, or releasing him (a trade is possible, but unlikely, given his injury history and the contract value). A restructure would save more than $7.9 million for 2023, so that’s the likeliest outcome.

If the Saints release Peat outright, they’ll save just $1.3 million against the 2023 salary cap while being on the hook for a staggering $16.9 million in dead money. So that isn’t a realistic option.

If they were to release him with a post-June 1 designation, Peat would become a free agent and have the ability to sign with a new team right away, but the Saints would still keep him on the books at that $18.3 million figure until June. They would have to wait until free agency is over and the draft is behind them to get any savings, but they would eventually get $11.8 million back.

The Saints are already under the salary cap; we’re still waiting to see new cap hits for Jameis Winston and Michael Thomas to know by how much, but New Orleans should be in the clear by several million dollars. Something has to give with Peat’s contract before they can shift focus to the free agent market. If the team plays its cards right, they can quickly become big spenders.

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4 moves Saints should make after signing Derek Carr and Juwan Johnson

Now that the Saints have their next quarterback and retained key talent, here are 4 more moves they should make, via @RossJacksonNOLA:

It’s been a busy week on Airline Drive for the New Orleans Saints. They now have their starting quarterback in 9-year veteran Derek Carr. Then, following his introductory press conference, the team retained one of their must-keep outgoing free agents, tight end Juwan Johnson. During Carr’s presser, head coach Dennis Allen outlined the plan for the remainder of the offseason. A plan that should not surprise anyone that knows how the Saints operate.

“I think first and foremost, we’re trying to see what we can do within our own building,” Allen said. “In terms of trying to get some of our guys, that would be option A. We’ll see what’s out there in terms of the market. I don’t see us going out in the first day or two of free agency and having some big splash acquisition. I think we’ll do what we’ve always done here.”

While the Saints may not be looking to reel in another big fish, aside from Carr at least, there are still some important things to get done. Here are four moves New Orleans should get done after landing Carr and re-signing key free agents like Johnson and safety J.T. Gray.

Andrus Peat gets dubious honor of a selection on Spotrac’s ‘All-Roster-Bubble Team’

Saints left guard Andrus Peat received the dubious honor of a selection on Spotrac’s ‘All-Roster-Bubble Team’ ahead of offseason NFL roster cuts:

The New Orleans Saints are hard at work restructuring contracts and discussing pay cuts or extensions with different players as they seek to reach salary cap compliance, but some outright releases could be on the way in the near future. Banged-up star wide receiver Michael Thomas appears to be on the way out (unless the Saints land free agent quarterback Derek Carr, maybe?) as a post-June 1 cut, and that’s also in play for Jameis Winston, New Orleans’ former starting quarterback.

But if either player stays with the Saints for 2023, oft-injured left guard Andrus Peat makes sense as another cuts candidate. Spotrac’s Michael Ginnitti put together an “All-Roster-Bubble Team” of the best players at each position who could be salary cap cut casualties in the weeks ahead, and Peat won the dubious distinction of making the list:

“Back-to-back restructures keep this contract difficult to move off from, but it seems a foregone conclusion anyway. A Pre 6/1 release only frees up $1.3M of cap space, while a Post 6/1 designation would open up $11.825M. The Saints have had players agree to base salary pay cuts in order to help facilitate a Post 6/1 move, and this feels like one of those situations. Dropping Peat’s deal down to the minimum for 2023 lowers his cap hit to $7.71M, a much more tenable number to have to carry through June 1st.”

Injuries have limited Peat to 17 appearances over the last 34 games, and he never completed a full 16-game season before the NFL expanded to a 17-week slate (twice playing 15 games, back-to-back in 2016 and 2017). The Saints will only receive modest salary cap savings by moving off of his contract, due to those past restructures, and they’ll probably only part ways with him if they choose to hold onto either Thomas or Winston instead. It’s a difficult problem they’ve made for themselves by doubling and tripling down on an aging player with durability concerns.

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How far away are the Saints from salary cap compliance?

How far away are the Saints from salary cap compliance? Their latest moves with Ryan Ramczyk and Wil Lutz covered a lot of ground:

The New Orleans Saints took a couple of important steps towards reaching salary cap compliance on Thursday, restructuring their deal with standout right tackle Ryan Ramczyk while agreeing to bring back struggling kicker Wil Lutz on a pay cut. These two moves saved a combined $11.8 million in salary cap space, leaving New Orleans over the 2023 salary cap by about $35.5 million.

Not bad considering they were over the cap by more than $58 million just a few weeks ago, and they haven’t lost a single player. With free agency on the horizon in March, it’s vital that the Saints continue to set up their books to keep their best talent in town and prepare for new additions. So what comes next?

We’ve outlined the many different roster moves and contract restructures available to the Saints this offseason, but there are a couple of obvious decisions ahead of them. Let’s recap them in brief:

  • DE Cameron Jordan: Restructure (saving $10,001,250) or extension (saving $10,668,000)
  • CB Marshon Lattimore: Restructure (saving $10,065,000)
  • LG Andrus Peat: Restructure (saving $7,995,000) or release with post-June 1 designation (saving $11,825,000)
  • QB Jameis Winston: Release with post-June 1 designation (saving $12,800,000)

Teams are allowed to release just two players with a post-June 1 designation, though, and that’s also a likely option for wide receiver Michael Thomas (saving $1,165,000), so it could be more feasible to restructure Peat’s deal and let him play it out. The point is that the Saints have several avenues ahead of them in reaching salary cap compliance, and these four moves alone would do it. After that, they’ll be looking to open up more room for signing free agents in the weeks ahead.

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Updated Saints depth chart at guard after re-signing Calvin Throckmorton

We’re updating the New Orleans Saints depth chart at guard after Calvin Throckmorton re-signed for 2023. Where he fits in the lineup this season:

The New Orleans Saints brought back offensive guard Calvin Throckmorton on a one-year deal for the 2023 season, which is a good move for their depth along the offensive line. But how does this change their depth chart at the position? Starting guards Andrus Peat and Cesar Ruiz are both under contract for 2023, and Throckmorton is just one of several backups in the mix (with a few new players joining up early this offseason), along with some players retained from last year’s practice squad.

So how do they all stack up? Here is the 2023 salary cap hit and 2022 snap counts for each of the guards currently signed on with New Orleans:

Saints re-sign OL Calvin Throckmorton to one-year contract extension

NOF’s Nick Underhill reports the Saints re-signed guard Calvin Throckmorton to one-year contract extension. He’s started 20 of his 31 games the last two years:

Here’s some good news for Calvin Throckmorton: NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill reports the offensive linemen has signed a one-year extension to remain with the Saints for 2023, valued at $940,000 (the veteran’s minimum for someone with his experience).

That’s noteworthy because Throckmorton was the team’s only exclusive rights free agent, which qualified him for a one-year offer maxing out at about $825,000. So the Saints gave Throckmorton a little more than they necessarily needed to.

It makes sense to reward him after all of the snaps he’s played the last two years. Since signing with New Orleans as an undrafted free agent out of Oregon, Throckmorton has started 20 of the 31 games he’s appeared in for relief of Andrus Peat at left guard and Cesar Ruiz at right guard. He’s been an important player for the Saints up front, and odds are they’ll be calling his number again in 2023.

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