Tag: restructure

Saints free up cap space, restructure deals with Terron Armstead and Michael Thomas

The New Orleans Saints created more 2020 salary cap space by restructuring their contracts with LT Terron Armstead and WR Michael Thomas.

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The New Orleans Saints created some much-needed space beneath the NFL salary cap by restructuring contracts with left tackle Terron Armstead and wide receiver Michael Thomas, per NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill. It’s a logical decision considering Armstead and Thomas ranked second and third for the Saints in salary cap hits for the 2020 season.

While the specifics about how much room the Saints have found is unclear, we can take an educated guess. Armstead carried a cap hit of $16 million, but $10.7 million of that is tied to his base salary — much of that can be converted into a signing bonus, which would be prorated over the next few years. Over The Cap suggests the Saints can save as much as $5.125 million with this maneuver.

Likewise, Thomas is due to count $15 million against the salary cap, with $11 million in base salary. Over The Cap’s estimates project a total of $8.072 million in savings, but we won’t know until later just how much the Saints created.

It’s important to remember that this money doesn’t vanish into thin air; it gets added onto future salary cap hits, meaning these players will be more difficult to release down the road. Fortunately, neither Thomas nor Armstead should be in danger of getting moved any time soon.

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Saints renegotiate contracts with Kiko Alonso and Patrick Robinson

The New Orleans Saints saved crucial salary cap space by renegotiating contracts with linebacker Kiko Alonso and cornerback Patrick Robinson

The New Orleans Saints are always creative in structuring contracts so that they can easily find salary cap space later on down the road, but sometimes they have to ask veteran players to restructure their deals or simply take a pay cut. That was the case on Tuesday when the team approached two projected starters, linebacker Kiko Alsono and cornerback Patrick Robinson, to adjust their contracts.

The first restructuring came for Alonso, who NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported agreed to lower his $8.7 million salary cap hit by earning it back through bonuses for playing time — much preferable to being released and trying to land with a new team. The exact details are unknown at this point, but it’s a safe bet that Alonso’s $6.375 million in base salary will be greatly reduced. While it’ll be a challenge for him to play often after tearing his ACL in last season’s playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings, he is projected to start next to Demario Davis and Alex Anzalone.

ESPN’s Field Yates also reported that the Saints renegotiated their deal with Robinson, who was set to count $6.15 million against the salary cap. With just $2.5 million in dead money tied to the 2020 fiscal year, the Saints could have saved $3.65 million by cutting Robinson outright. Instead he’ll stick around as valuable depth and, for now, projected to start in the slot as the nickel corner behind Marshon Lattimore and Janoris Jenkins.

And more moves could be on the way as the Saints look to create additional salary cap space. They have agreed to terms on contract extensions with veterans like Drew Brees, David Onyemata, and Zach Wood, but will need more resources to re-sign other free agents. Keep an eye out for additional transactions.

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Cowboys restructure Ezekiel Elliott, La’el Collins for minor space

Timing is everything, and sometimes it’s nothing at all. After adding Dak Prescott’s sizable one-year cap hit in the form of the franchise tag, and then inking Amari Cooper to a nine-figure deal, one might think the Dallas Cowboys were low on cap …

Timing is everything, and sometimes it’s nothing at all. After adding Dak Prescott’s sizable one-year cap hit in the form of the franchise tag, and then inking Amari Cooper to a nine-figure deal, one might think the Dallas Cowboys were low on cap space.

When word came down the club had restructured the deals of La’el Collins and Ezekiel Elliott, both just signed last year, all of the comments about having to do that in order to make the moves announced earlier ran rampant. They couldn’t be the furthest things from the truth.

Neither player was set to make a boatload of money in base salary in 2020, with each being under $7 million after receiving hefty sums in Year 1 of their deals.

Sure enough, the details came down from ESPN’s Todd Archer; there wasn’t much savings reaped. In fact, they didn’t save any cap space with Elliott’s restructure at all.

Elliott’s restructure could have something to do with the way his future guarantees are set, an agreement made when the contract was signed, or something completely different. Elliott signed a six-year extension for $90 million total last offseason. Collins signed a five-year deal for $50 million total.

Dallas entered the day with around $72 million in cap space under the $198.2 million salary limit for 2020. The Prescott franchise tag soaked up somewhere between $31.5 million and $33 million. If the club structured Cooper’s five-year deal like many other star contracts, his first-year hit is almost guaranteed to be below $10 million.

That left around $30 million in space, meaning the club is around $34 million in space now if they can’t work out a long-term agreement with Prescott.

The club is said to be pursuing Broncos FA CB Chris Harris as a replacement for Byron Jones, who signed with Miami earlier in the day, and is still trying to bring back DE Robert Quinn.

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Plotting out an offseason road map for the New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints must wait out the CBA vote, navigate the salary cap, deal with pending free agents, and make the most of the draft.

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The advent of NFL free agency is just days away, and the New Orleans Saints are as busy as any other team in preparing for it. Despite travel restrictions and other in-house changes in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus, the Saints are moving forwards with business as usual.

So why haven’t they made any moves yet? Where are the annual salary cap cuts, restructures, and contract extensions with pending free agents? Like most teams, the Saints are waiting for the NFL Players Association to finish voting on the proposed collective bargaining agreement, which will dictate how teams do business over the next decade. Voting closes at midnight on Saturday, and Saints punter Thomas Morstead (a member of the NFLPA executive committee), has already voiced support for the new CBA.

Still, we’ll take a look at predicting what the Saints may do in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Here’s your road map to a busy Saints offseason.

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