Tag: tanoh kpassagnon

Report: Tanoh Kpassagnon’s 2-year contract extension valued at $6 million

Report: Tanoh Kpassagnon’s two-year contract extension with the New Orleans Saints is valued at $6 million, avoiding a trip in free agency:

There’s those numbers everyone is looking for. KPRC2 Houston’s Aaron Wilson first reported the numbers on Tanoh Kpassagnon’s contract extension with the New Orleans Saints, sharing that the big defensive end inked a two-year deal valued at a maximum of $6 million.

This is a good value for the Saints, though we don’t know the exact salary cap hit for retaining Kpassagnon. He was set to count about $1.5 million against the cap due to a past restructure with automatically-voiding years rewritten into his contract, so at least there isn’t much going to waste here. Some dead money will probably be owed one day once Kpassagnon is no longer on the roster, but for now the Saints get to max out their resources and he gets some security. Good for him.

Kpassagnon has been a regular part of New Orleans’ defensive line rotation the last two years, playing 220 snaps across 8 games in 2021 and 356 snaps in 15 games during the 2022 season. He’s been officially credited with 6 sacks and 14 quarterback hits on those opportunities in addition to 46 tackles (27 solo, 6 tackles for loss) and a forced fumble, plus a couple o fpass deflections. He’s a good player to keep in the mix, and he may be in line for a bigger role if the Saints don’t re-sign Marcus Davenport this offseason.

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Another defensive line free agent option is off the board

A possible option is signing an extension and not hitting the market.

The New Orleans Saints are keeping some of their talents from hitting the marking after signing Tanoh Kpassagnon to a contract extension. Kpassagnon was a possible option to be paired with Myles Garrett with the Cleveland Browns next season that is off the table. A role player that was effective as both a pass rusher and a run defender that could have benefited from the attention that Garrett gets.

There are still plenty of options for the Browns to make rebuild their defensive line as the Saints continue to manipulate the cap. The NFL combine starts shortly with free agency to follow as the NFL offseason kicks into full gear.

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Tanoh Kpassagnon’s agent announces contract extension with Saints

Tanoh Kpassagnon’s agent announced news of his contract extension with the Saints, though terms of the agreement remain undisclosed:

There it is: the New Orleans Saints have signed defensive lineman Tanoh Kpassagnon to a contract extension, per his representative David Canter of GSE Football. Kpassagnon’s agent did not disclose terms of the agreement, though, so we’re still waiting to see what he is getting in return for coming back for 2023 — and maybe beyond. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero described this as a multiyear deal when both sides were still negotiating it, so Kpassagnon could be around for a while.

He’s been a good player in the rotation along the line, most often lining up out on the edge at defensive end but occasionally bumping inside to defensive tackle. Kpassagnon has generated 32 quarterback pressures and 8 sacks through two years on the team, per Pro Football Focus charting, while holding his own in run defense.

Does this mean anything for the other defensive linemen headed for free agency in New Orleans? The Saints have their work cut out for them in re-signing pending free agents like Marcus Davenport, David Onyemata, Shy Tuttle, Kentavius Street, and Malcolm Roach. Retaining Kpassagnon at least makes it easier to move on from some of those guys, but others should still return if the price is right.

Update: KPRC2 Houston’s Aaron Wilson reports it is a two-year deal valued at up to $6 million.

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Report: Saints ‘closing in’ on extension with DE Tanoh Kpassagnon

Report: Saints ‘closing in’ on extension with defensive lineman Tanoh Kpassagnon, one of several pending free agents:

This is good to see. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Friday afternoon that the New Orleans Saints are “closing in” on a contract extension with defensive lineman Tanoh Kpassagnon which would keep him in town for several years. Kpassagnon’s current deal expires on March 5 and would leave behind $1,992,000 in dead money left over from void years written into his contract for accounting purposes.

So it’s in the team’s financial interest to extend Kpassagnon and ensure those resources don’t go to waste. The veteran backup occasionally slid inside but mainly played out on the edge for New Orleans last year, often getting into games ahead of 2021 first-round draft pick Payton Turner. He totaled 356 snaps in 15 games played, having racked up 16 quarterback pressures and 4 sacks in each of the last two seasons, per Pro Football Focus charting.

And it’s in both sides’ interest to keep Kpassagnon on the roster. New Orleans could see an exodus of talent along its defensive line this offseason. The list of free agents from that unit include starters David Onyemata and Marcus Davenport as well as backups like Kpassagnon, Shy Tuttle, Malcolm Roach, and Kentavius Street. They won’t be able to re-sign everyone, so having a position-flexible veteran like Kpassagnon to steady the rotation with Cameron Jordan, Carl Granderson, and Turner makes sense. It sounds like negotiations are going well, but we’ll keep an eye out for confirmation when pens go to paper.

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Saints have 4 players accounting for $5 million in dead money for 2023

The New Orleans Saints have four players accounting for $5 million in dead money for 2023, but that number could soon increase five or six times over:

There’s a lot of work to be done in getting the new Orleans Saints under the 2023 salary cap, but don’t blame players no longer on the roster. For once, the Saints don’t have many dead money commitments from past retirements and roster mistakes — just four players are on the books right now who won’t be playing for New Orleans in the fall. As things currently stand, they won’t have any dead money leftover at all in 2024. It’s the healthiest this area of the operation has been in years.

But it won’t last. While the Saints are forfeiting $5,038,479 right now in dead money (per Over The Cap), that number could increase five times over in just a few weeks should a couple of free agents sign with other teams. And any players designated as post-June 1 cuts will factor into the 2024 salary cap mathematics. Let’s break it down:

Second-year Saints DE Payton Turner had the best game of his career vs. Raiders

Second-year Saints defensive end Payton Turner had the best game of his career against the Raiders. It’s important he continues to turn the corner:

This is what you love to see. Payton Turner’s pro career hasn’t started out as well as hoped, but he delivered on those expectations in Sunday’s rout of the Las Vegas Raiders. The second-year New Orleans Saints defensive end played the best football we’ve seen out of him in Week 8’s game — he notched 5 quarterback pressures at Pro Football Focus, including 2 sacks. He was also credited with 3 defensive stops, which are typically defined as plays in which the offense gains 50% or fewer yards necessary for a conversion.

What’s impressive here is that this was just the ninth game Turner has played in the NFL. He lost most of his rookie season to injuries and has only been active for four games this season. He’s young and inexperienced, but he’s got the tools to win on Sundays. It’s really encouraging to see him finding this kind of success at this stage in his career.

The Saints will need more games like it out of him, though. Their future at defensive end is unclear. Marcus Davenport is their best pass rusher at the position and he’ll be a free agent in the spring; Cameron Jordan has a real shot at entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday, but he’s 33 and playing on a hefty contract. Tanoh Kpassagnon will also be a free agent in 2023, leaving Turner and Carl Granderson (who was inactive Sunday) as the only two young players signed long-term. If Turner can turn the corner and keep racking up sacks and building confidence, he can be a big part of the solution at defensive end.

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Saints’ deals with Cameron Jordan, Carl Granderson set up the plan at DE

Cameron Jordan’s restructure makes it all but certain he’ll play his career out in black and gold, while Carl Granderon’s extension tees up their next move at defensive end:

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This is interesting: ESPN’s Field Yates reported that the New Orleans Saints re-signed defensive end Carl Granderson, one of their exclusive rights free agents, but he later added that Granderson inked a two-year deal with the Saints rather than a typical one-year contract extension. That means he’ll be with New Orleans through 2022 and 2023, finally reaching unrestricted free agency in 2024.

That’s significant for a couple of different reasons, which we’ll get to in a second. Yates clarified that the Saints paid Granderson $4.3 million in addition to the $965,000 he qualified for as an exclusive rights free agent — that’s equal to what a second-round restricted free agent tender could be worth next year. So why did they do that?

For one, the Saints have now given Granderson a clear idea of how strongly they value him. If he had become a restricted free agent in 2023, they would have tendered him at that level. He’s ascending in their pass-rush rotation, and they think he’s about to have a great two-year stretch. For another, Granderson’s teammates Marcus Davenport and Tanoh Kpassagnon are each entering the final year of their contracts with the Saints, meaning they’ll hit free agency in 2023. This effectively means New Orleans has two fires to put out in 2023 rather than three.

But why sign him to a two-year extension rather than a three-year deal? That may benefit the team more if they view Granderson as a player on the rise, getting him under contract at a bargain, but it’s in Granderson’s interest to reach unrestricted free agency sooner rather than later. That’s where he is likely to find his biggest payday. So while he may appreciate the security in a three-year deal, his path to earning significantly more money makes a two-year deal more preferable. This suggests he and the Saints reached a compromise.

This wasn’t the only move the Saints made at defensive end on Thursday, though. Cameron Jordan restructured his contract to lower his salary cap hit from $23.1 million to just over $12.4 million, saving roughly $10.7 million against the cap. Jordan will still get that money — this isn’t a pay cut. Instead, he agreed to lower his base salary from $13.6 million to the minimum at $1.12 million, earning the difference back as a signing bonus. He gets his money now instead of later. And the Saints, for accounting purposes, get to defer those payments against the cap onto future years.

Thanks for sticking through that jargon (I never warned you there would be math). The end result is that Jordan will play for the Saints in 2022 at a lower price, and he’s now likely to finish his career in black and gold. New Orleans would still be paying him more than $23 million to not play for them in 2023 should he be released or traded next offseason. They could wait until after June 1, 2023 to move him (saving $15 million) but that would put a serious handicap on their cap flexibility during free agency and the draft.

So we should expect another move with Jordan next offseason in one way or another. An extension feels more likely than another restructure. Jordan’s contract is set to expire on March 12, 2024, making him a 35-year-old free agent and leaving more than $12.7 million behind in dead money. The Saints could sign him to a smaller-valued, multiyear extension that allows him to run up the score on the team sacks record (he currently trails the great Rickey Jackson by 8) that won’t weight down their salary cap figure once his playing days are over.

Then again, the Saints have accepted $11.5 million dead money charges for Drew Brees in both 2021 and 2022. And they’re set up to take another $12.9 million hit should Terron Armstead leave in free agency next week. If they don’t touch Jordan’s contract again (unlikely as that seems), his eventual dead money charge of $12.7 million does fall within the zone they’ve shown is acceptable. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that, though.

That isn’t all, though. The Saints also restructured their quarterback with Tanoh Kpassagnon to save a little over $1.6 million. Because his contract already had some void years sewn into it, he’s now on pace to leave behind about $1.9 million should he leave in free agency next offseason. For context, he will have played on cap hits of $1.1 million and $1.5 million in two years with New Orleans. I would think an extension is in store to avoid paying him more not to play with the Saints, but that’s a bridge they plan to cross another day.

And this all surrounds the intrigue on Marcus Davenport, who is currently playing on his fifth year option and set to become a free agent next March just like Kpassagnon. Maybe the Saints don’t touch his contract, and prefer to let him play it out before discussing an extension. Maybe they restructure him like they did with past first rounders Marshon Lattimore (who later signed an extension anyway) and Sheldon Rankins (who didn’t). But in restructuring Jordan and extending Granderson, they have something to work with should Davenport end up leaving New Orleans once his contract expires. It’s important to remember that none of these moves are made in isolation. Everything influences something else.

So, to recap, here is where the Saints stand at defensive end going into the 2022 season, and when those players will be up for new deals:

  • Tanoh Kpassagnon: under contract through March 7, 2023
  • Marcus Davenport: under contract through March 15, 2023
  • Carl Granderson: under contract through March 13, 2024
  • Cameron Jordan: under contract through March 12, 2024
  • Payton Turner: under contract through March 12, 2025 (pending his fifth-year option)

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Saints create more cap space with Cameron Jordan, Tanoh Kpassagnon contract restructures

The New Orleans Saints saved more salary cap space through additional contract restructures with Cameron Jordan and Tanoh Kpassagnon, via @RossJacksonNOLA:

With the new league year right around the corner, the New Orleans Saints continue to chip away at their salary cap overages. They began the offseason approximately $76 million over the league’s limit, but took a big step toward compliance with restructures to Michael Thomas, Ryan Ramczyk, and Andrus Peat’s deals. Now, the Saints take another step forward by restructuring the contracts of defensive ends Cameron Jordan and Tanoh Kpassagnon.

According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the moves will free up an additional $12,445,412. This should leave the Saints over the cap by somewhere around $32 million. Contract restructures are a common offseason tool used by the New Orleans front office. General manager Mickey Loomis and vice president of football operations Khai Harley often have these mechanisms built into contracts well ahead of the reorientation of a player’s base salary or bonuses.

The Saints still have several simple restructures they can turn to as they get under the NFL’s salary cap limit before the new league year begins on March 16. Some of those options include offensive weapon Taysom Hill, cornerback Marshon Lattimore (whose contract could open up over half of the remaining overages), and running back Alvin Kamara.

New Orleans could also get crafty with the fifth-year option of defensive end Marcus Davenport, much like they did with Lattimore’s option last season and Sheldon Rankins’ a year earlier. With Davenport being an extension candidate in the near future, pushing some of his fifth-year option guarantees into future years would not be a bad option.

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Saints are short on salary cap cut candidates for 2022

There’s been too much chatter about the Saints cutting half their team to get under the cap. When you look at their books, you’ll find little savings from outright releases:

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Look around online and you’ll see so, so much hand-wringing about how the New Orleans Saints are going to keep their team together. There are so many terrible takes on social media suggesting the Saints are going to have to cut half their team just to get under the salary cap. And it’s all malarkey. Maybe even baloney. It’s nonsense.

The Saints structure the vast majority of their contracts with players so that they can restructure salaries and bonuses at will, converting those payouts into signing bonuses which can be paid off in subsequent seasons. Sure, they could cut a bunch of starters to reach cap compliance — but it’s worth more to the Saints to restructure those contracts, saving cap space and keeping their core players. The financial benefits don’t justify cutting their best players, especially if the team won’t see those benefits until it’s too late to matter.

We’ve discussed this topic to exhaustion, but it’s worth considering whether the Saints actually do have any cap cut candidates to discuss. It’s possible that they decide to just let some guys go rather than restructure new deals with them.

To that end, here is the list of players the Saints can release before June 1 and save more than $2 million (we’re using that figure as our standard because it’s what the Saints saved in releasing Emmanuel Sanders last year, and also because anything less is negligible). Remember, the team must reach salary cap compliance by March 16, meaning these options present the highest possible savings available right now:

  1. CB Bradley Roby: $9,491,575
  2. DT David Onyemata: $3,830,000
  3. S Malcolm Jenkins: $3,800,000
  4. C Erik McCoy: $2,790,000
  5. DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson: $2,540,000
  6. DL Tanoh Kpassagnon: $2,350,000
  7. RB Mark Ingram: $2,300,000
  8. S J.T. Gray: $2,100,000
  9. WR Michael Thomas, $2,000,000

Of this group, all but four played 400 or more combined snaps on offense, defense, and special teams last year: Roby (399), Kpassagnon (252), Ingram (236), and Thomas (0). Roby nearly got over the bar but he was in and out of the lineup with rookie draft pick Paulson Adebo playing at a high level. Kpassagnon was limited by injuries, as was Ingram, who joined the team in a midseason trade. Thomas of course missed the entire season recovering from surgery. So that leaves Roby, Kpassagnon, and Ingram as what we can call part-time players.

Something is going to happen with Roby’s contract, whether it’s an outright release, restructure, or maybe a trade to another team. The Saints can save that $9.4 million with an immediate release or trade, or get back a full $10 million by designating him a post-June 1 cut, but they won’t get that money until late this summer — when it won’t do much good after free agency has quieted down. If they want to hold onto Roby instead, a restructure saves up to $6.6 million while a true contract extension recoups $7.1 million.

As for Kpassagnon and Ingram: there are arguments in favor of moving on from them. The Saints are looking short on snaps to go around at defensive end between Cameron Jordan, Marcus Davenport, 2021 first round pick Payton Turner, and restricted free agent Carl Granderson. If they re-sign Granderson and retain Kpassagnon, someone is likely inactive on gamedays.

And in Ingram’s case, a $2.3 million salary cap hit may be too much for a 32-year-old backup running back. Well, on its surface, anyway. If Alvin Kamara is going to miss time to a suspension stemming from his arrest in Las Vegas, maybe the Saints should hold onto Ingram. Either way, they need to take a hard look at that part of the depth chart and consider upgrading from backups Tony Jones Jr., Josh Adams, and Dwayne Washington, an unrestricted free agent.

What about other post-June 1 cuts? Teams are allowed to designate two contracts as early releases while still getting the benefits of a later cut, but they still must defer the cap relief until June 2. If you’re curious, here are the players the Saints could tab as a post-June 1 release and (eventually) save more than $2 million. And remember, they won’t see any of this money until after the cap compliance deadline and free agency’s biggest moves:

  1. WR Michael Thomas: $15,800,000
  2. DE Cameron Jordan: $15,000,000
  3. CB Bradley Roby: $10,000,000
  4. DT David Onyemata: $8,500,000
  5. S Malcolm Jenkins: $7,750,000
  6. LB Demario Davis: $7,500,000
  7. K Wil Lutz: $3,650,000
  8. OL James Hurst: $2,925,000
  9. C Erik McCoy: $2,790,000
  10. DE Tanoh Kpassagnon: $2,650,000
  11. DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson: $2,540,000
  12. RB Mark Ingram: $2,300,000
  13. S J.T. Gray: $2,100,000

In applying the same standard for identifying part-time players (those with fewer than 400 total snaps played last season), our list is now: Thomas (0 snaps), Roby (399), Lutz (0), Kpassagnon (252), and Ingram (236). So if the Saints are looking to part ways with Thomas — which really doesn’t appear to be the case, given the latest reports — the best way for them to accomplish that is designating him a post-June 1 cut. Unless you’d rather explore a trade after that date, anyway. But it sure seems Thomas is staying in New Orleans this year.

And Lutz is our only new addition, having also missed the season while recovering from an injury. Maybe the Saints need that $3.65 million after free agency and after the draft and decide it’s time to reset the kicker situation. I don’t buy that, though, given how terrible their experience on the kicker carousel was last year. Moving on from a Pro Bowl player now doesn’t do anything to help them.

That’s the problem with that post-June 1 designation. It doesn’t help teams who need to get under the salary cap before the March 16 deadline. All of the benefits in using it are deferred until later in the summer, after all of the top free agents have been signed and after the draft in April. It’s useful in creating room to work out extensions with players already on the roster, but if you’re the Saints you’re more worried about new additions you can make in March than who you can sign long-term in June.

And, again: why take that approach if you’re the Saints? Sure you can cut the two biggest contracts and get back $30.8 million in June, but you’ll be without maybe your best players on both defense and offense. If you can redo contracts with Thomas and Jordan to save cap space right now, before free agency kicks off in March, and ensure they’ll be around as cornerstones of the team moving forwards, you take that path seven days a week.

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How are 15 notable Saints free agent pickups faring after first 5 games?

How are 15 notable Saints free agent pickups faring after first 5 games?

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It’s no secret that the New Orleans Saints were not big spenders in free agency. They had to race to reach salary cap compliance from a $100 million deficit, leaving them with little resources to commit to improving their squad. Of the players they did sign only a select few joined the black and gold for more than a minimum salary.

Still, the Saints were able to add a number of new faces despite those financial limitations. Some of them (Tanoh Kpassagnon and Bradley Roby) made a greater impression than others (Austin Reiter and Prince Amukamara), who were only around long enough to get a cup of coffee. Here are how the top 15 Saints pickups have fared at the bye week: