$6M Of Saints S Jairus Byrd’s Contract Becomes Fully Guaranteed

Joel Corry of CBS Sports mentions that $6 million of Saints S Jairus Byrd‘s $7.4 million base salary for the 2016 season becomes fully guaranteed today.

Byrd’s 2016 cap figure sits at $10.9 million, and releasing him before his guarantees kicked in would have resulted in $11.4 million in dead money for New Orleans, according to Corry.

New Orleans, once again, finds themselves in an tough cap situation, so they’ll need to create some more cap space in order for them to address their roster needs.

Since the Saints signed Byrd to a big-money contract a few years ago, the results have been mixed for the most part, so it appeared as though there may have been a chance they could have moved on from him this offseason.

However, they would have had to designate him as a post-June 1 release, seeing as they wouldn’t have created as cap space by releasing him outright. After June 1, they would have picked up $7.5 million of cap space while creating $3.4 million in dead money, according to OverTheCap.com.

Byrd, 29, is entering the third year of his six-year, $54 million contract that includes $26.3 million guaranteed. He stands to make a base salary of $7.4 million for the 2016 season.

In 2015, Byrd appeared in 13 games for the Saints and recorded 52 tackles, one sack, an interception, a forced fumble, a recovery and three pass defenses. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 47 safety out of 88 qualifying players.