The New Orleans Saints entered the offseason in salary cap hell with approximately $80 million over the cap. The Saints were able to get under the cap and free up cap space by restructuring, extending, and releasing players.
The Saints, heading into Thursday, are $6 million under the cap and need to free up cap space in order to sign someone. They restructured the contract of their versatile offensive weapon.
The New Orleans Saints restructured the contract of their versatile offensive weapon
The Saints restructured Taysom Hill’s contract by converting $8.79 million of his base salary into a signing bonus, adding one void year, and freeing $6.59 million in cap space.
As a result, his base salary dropped from $10 million to $1.21 million, and his cap hit dropped from $15.79 million to $9.2 million for the 2024 season. His cap hit will increase by $2.19 million to $17.986 million for the 2025 season. Finally, his contract voids in 2026 and will incur a dead cap hit of $9.723 million.
The Saints currently have $12 million in cap space.
There are two reasons why this move is important.
Reason 1
The first reason is that the Saints could be interested in signing a veteran tight end. Their starter, Juwan Johnson, suffered a foot injury. Johnson will undergo surgery next week and is expected to be sidelined for a while. However, the Saints are optimistic that he will be ready for the start of the regular season.
Notable free-agent tight ends who are available include Jimmy Graham and Geoff Swaim.
Reason 2
The second reason is that the Saints could use another veteran safety who can line up on the opposite side of Tyrann Mathieu. Their projected starter is Jordan Howden, who is in his second year and took over for Marcus Maye last season. Howden started seven games and posted a 67.0 PFF grade in 2023.
Justin Simmons is the best free-agent safety available and would be an instant upgrade over Howden.
1 Comment
They better get Kamara’s contract right, he’s the best back in the league!