There’s no getting around it: the 2020 offseason will be difficult for the New Orleans Saints. They must navigate contract decisions with a number of important free agents, including all three quarterbacks (Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater will be unrestricted free agents, while Taysom Hill is designated with restricted status). With the 2020 salary cap expected to settle somewhere around $200 million, the Saints will have between $16 and $20 million to spend. That won’t be enough to keep everyone.
Some restructures should be expected; it’s a staple of the playbook built by Saints general manager Mickey Loomis and salary cap specialist Khai Hartley. But they’ll also have to consider cutting veteran players to curb costs. Here are four potential Saints salary cap casualties.
Janoris Jenkins
Potential savings: $11.25 million
The Saints claimed Jenkins off of waivers in December, inheriting the final year of his New York Giants contract in the process. That agreement carries with it a 2020 salary cap hit of $11.25 million, none of which is guaranteed — yet. Jenkins will be due a $1 million roster bonus on March 16, which would be fully-guaranteed. So the Saints could theoretically release Jenkins before that date and leave no dead money behind; doing so afterwards would leave $1 million in dead money.
That said, cutting Jenkins doesn’t make sense, but it could benefit him and the Saints to add a year or two onto his current deal to spread out the salary cap hits. He played so well in his two starts for New Orleans (ending the Week 17 game Carolina Panthers with an interception, and erasing Stefon Diggs in the the wild-card loss to the Minnesota Vikings) that he should definitely be a part of their plans for 2020.
Keeping Jenkins is even more sensible when you consider Saints cornerbacks Eli Apple and P.J. Williams will test free agency in a few months. Ironically, Apple and Jenkins were once teammates with the Giants — and the Saints declined Apple’s fifth-year option, which would have guaranteed him about $13.6 million for the 2020 season. Instead, Jenkins has taken his starting job.
