The next team in our five-part series examining the five worst cap situations heading into the 2025 offseason is the New Orleans Saints. While the NFL as a whole is much healthier financially compared to after the pandemic in 2020 — just six teams are in the red in Over The Cap’s projected effective cap space for 2025, a number that’s been twice as big in recent seasons — the Saints once again have the biggest deficit by far to climb out of.
New Orleans has been the poster child organization for teams in “cap hell” for a few years now. Every team has to make decisions based off its financial circumstances, but that dynamic will be more pronounced with the Saints than the other teams in this series. More than other teams, their financial circumstances will dictate what the roster looks like in 2025, including which cuts and restructures will be on deck.
Let’s dive in:
Saints: -70,252,233
There are a lot of misconceptions around the Saints and how they handle the salary cap. Personally, I don’t think they’ve had the worst cap situation in the league nearly as often as they’ve gotten that label in the past decade. But there’s no sugarcoating that at present, their $70 million cap deficit is nearly three times larger as the next closest team.
Most teams can cut players to get under the cap and rebalance their books. Because of how the Saints have restructured contracts for years and years, they have no choice but to keep restructuring contracts and push money into the future to get under the cap in the present. New Orleans is content with that because organizational continuity is one of its top core values. The tradeoff is it limits the flexibility with the roster.
Fortunately there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. We wrote back in May that 2026 is looking like the first offseason in which the Saints won’t have to do a ton of restructures just to fit under the salary cap. For now, that’s still true, depending on what kind of contracts they give out this offseason. Until then, the Saints will have to kick the can for another year.
The First Domino
This offseason is unlike any the Saints have had in a long, long time. New Orleans has prioritized stability with most of its moves over the past several years, not only with all the contracts it restructured, but the choice to promote Dennis Allen from defensive coordinator to head coach after Sean Payton retired. At every turn, they’ve resisted the idea of tearing down and rebuilding.
But when the team fired Allen midseason after a loss to the Panthers, it opened the door to the kind of serious change the Saints haven’t experienced since hiring Payton nearly two decades ago. Feeling frustration from the fanbase over Allen’s tenure and a continued playoff drought in a winnable NFC South, owner Gayle Benson overruled GM Mickey Loomis who would have stayed the course with Allen. There’s not much buzz about Loomis’ job being in danger but with a new head coach arriving in January, there could be more significant changes on the horizon.
Quarterback stands out as chief on that list. Figuring out a plan for the position and current starting QB Derek Carr will be the first order of business for Loomis, Benson and the new coach. There are two ways this could go:
Plan A: Keep Carr
I can’t read minds but I will hazard a guess that Loomis will be in favor of running things back with Carr based on the fact he signed him to a big deal in 2023, restructured that contract this past offseason when there was an out he could have taken, and has backed Carr throughout this season. Loomis has cited injuries — which have been severe — in a couple of interviews this year as a factor in why the Saints have underperformed. It remains to be seen where Benson and the new coach come down on the subject. It feels like there will be a fair amount of push and pull over how much change the franchise actually needs.
Carr’s contract is what passes for a middle-class quarterback deal these days. He’s due a $30 million base salary in 2025, all of which will become guaranteed at the start of the league year, plus a $10 million roster bonus that is already guaranteed. He’s under contract for one more year after next and owed $50 million for that season. There are also three void years to help spread the cap hit out from restructures, including one with no dead money on it right now that offers a pretty big hint about what the team planned to do last offseason when they added it.
Restructuring Carr’s contract again would provide nearly $31 million in additional cap space to work with in 2025. However, it would add that same amount to the team’s dead money bill in 2026 if it wants to move on from Carr. Right now the Saints would take on a $28.6 million dead money hit in 2026 if they cut Carr, which is $32.8 million less than his scheduled cap hit. If they restructured his deal, there would be more than $59 million in dead money. It wouldn’t prevent the Saints from cutting Carr but it would mean there would be just negligible cap savings.
Another factor to consider is what the Saints’ options will be when it comes to upgrading at quarterback. The Saints would be hard-pressed to sign or trade for a clear upgrade in 2025, which is not a banner year for available quarterbacks. The upcoming draft class is also light on starting prospects, and New Orleans will be picking low enough to not even be assured a chance at the top options. Loomis has touted the potential of backup QBs Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener to possibly develop into starting options down the line, but neither has impressed in limited action this year.
Carr is who he is at this point in his career — not a top-ten option but a reliable veteran with a fairly high floor who can be productive in the right environment. The Saints’ offense was humming at one point this year before running into injury issues, and Carr was part of that success just as much as he’s been a part of the problem as the situation has deteriorated.
Plan B: Move on from Carr
If the team decides it doesn’t want to pay Carr $40 million next year, its options are limited. His salary makes a trade difficult, even though there will be a bunch of quarterback-needy teams next year. More importantly, Carr has a no-trade clause, making it moot. The Saints would have to cut Carr before the rest of his salary becomes guaranteed at the start of the league year, eating $50 million in dead money they can either take all at once or split between this year and next with a June 1 designation.
Without the ability to restructure Carr, the Saints will also be far more limited in the space they can create in 2025 to add to the roster. They can still get under the salary cap but without the benefit of $30 million in savings, they won’t be able to do much more than sign their draft picks and maybe a few low-cost veterans. Even a June 1 cut, which would provide $30 million in cap savings, wouldn’t hit the books until that date when nearly all the notable free agents are signed.
Essentially, cutting Carr would kick off the type of tear-down and rebuild project that the Saints have resisted for a long, long time. Even if Benson wants change, I don’t know if she’s interested in signing up for a transition period that painful. That’s why if I had to put money on an outcome, it would be on the Saints restructuring Carr and trying to create as strong of an environment around him as possible.
June 1 Cut Candidates
Once the Saints make a decision on Carr, there’s far less drama about the other moves they’ll need to make to get under the cap. They’ve been using the June 1 designation to chip away at some of the bad contracts on the roster and that should continue this year.
First, a quick explainer about the June 1 designation. Normally when teams cut a player, all the remaining dead money on their contract accelerates to the current year. But after June 1 when a player is cut, that acceleration is forestalled for a year, splitting the dead money over two seasons. Teams can pick two players to designate as June 1 cuts and cut before that date, though the cap savings don’t kick in until that date. One thing you’ll see crafty teams do is agree to reduce a player’s base salary to the minimum with the intention of making them a June 1 release, that way they can get the savings in March when they’re more relevant.
The catch for the Saints is they only get two June 1 cut designations and there are more than two players they could use it on. The most likely option is RT Ryan Ramczyk who has not played at all this year due to a knee injury that refuses to get better. He agreed to a pay cut this past offseason and it would not be surprising to see him agree to another to facilitate a June 1 release or retirement, saving the team $18 million. With two former first-round tackles on the roster, the Saints seem to be moving forward without him.
Taysom Hill and DE Cameron Jordan are the other two options to consider. Jordan has seen his production dip substantially over the past two seasons, with just three sacks in that timespan. He’s playing less than 50 percent of the snaps right now. However, Jordan is set to make a base salary of $12.5 million in 2025 when he’ll be 36 years old. Even though $1.5 million of that is already guaranteed, there’s no way the Saints bring him back at that amount.
Hill was scheduled to make $10 million in the final year of his contract in 2025. The Saints might have been willing to pay that since Hill has been their most explosive player on offense for big chunks of this season. But a torn ACL this month complicates that outlook, especially given the timing and Hill’s age at 34.
The Saints could cut Hill straight up and the dead money hit would basically equal what he was scheduled to count against the cap for. A June 1 cut saves the team $10 million, though. As for Jordan, cutting him outright would cause the Saints to lose $4 million in cap space, while a June 1 cut would save $11 million. The Saints could really use the savings for both, so I think there’s a strong chance they work out some kind of pay cut with one of those players to accomplish the same thing.
For instance, if Jordan agrees to a pay cut to $1.5 million, the net cap savings are the same as a June 1 cut while preserving the designation for the Saints to use on Hill. For that matter, they could agree to a reworked deal with Hill to keep him on the team at a lower number with a chance to earn back some money with incentives if his rehab goes well.
In total, the Saints can save $39 million against their cap in 2025 by cutting these three contracts, in some form or fashion. That’s more than half the deficit they need to make up.
Kicking The Can & Getting Creative
The other half of the savings the Saints will need to make up will come from another wave of restructures, with a few small cap cuts under consideration. Here’s a list of potential restructure candidates and the maximum possible savings:
- C Erik McCoy ($6.7 million)
- OL Cesar Ruiz ($6.4 million)
- LB Demario Davis ($5.6 million)
- DE Carl Granderson ($5.2 million)
- S Tyrann Mathieu ($4.5 million)
- DT Nathan Shepherd ($2.7 million)
- LB Pete Werner ($2.5 million)
In total, the Saints can create another $33 million in cap space by restructuring all these contracts. Some are core players who would be under consideration for restructures in normal circumstances, like Ruiz and McCoy. Some have guaranteed money that was designed to be restructured, like Granderson. Others are aging players who ideally would not be restructured, but might have to be out of necessity. Jordan and Hill’s contracts are good examples of players who were restructured too many times and limited the team’s options when they became ineffective.
Davis (36 years old in 2025) and Mathieu (33) are two of the riskier restructures. Davis’ play has already shown some signs of slippage this year but the team guaranteed him $4.25 million for 2025 in a new deal signed this past offseason, so they might as well restructure and spread it out. Mathieu has been solid this year but defensive backs on the far side of 30 are always at risk for a sudden dropoff. He also has $1 million in salary for 2025 guaranteed already.
None of these players can be cut without costing the Saints cap space due to future dead money accelerating, but there are a few other cap cut options if the Saints need to go fishing for change in the couch cushions:
- DT Khalen Saunders ($2.6 million)
- TE Foster Moreau ($2.5 million)
- WR Cedrick Wilson ($2.4 million)
- S J.T. Gray ($2.1 million)
- RB Jamaal Williams ($1.6 million)
While cutting all these players would free up another $11 million, that would be offset by at least half by the need to sign other players to the roster to replace them. If any of these players are cut, it will likely be due more to performance or a desire to get younger. Williams and Wilson stand out as being in danger. The Saints can also restructure all of these players but the net savings is less than $2 million per player.
The final way for the Saints to create more space is actually by signing certain players to extensions. New Orleans has a handful of players with deals set to void, which will accelerate all the remaining dead money to 2025:
- DE Chase Young ($9.1 million)
- TE Juwan Johnson ($6.5 million)
- DE Tanoh Kpassagnon ($1.9 million)
If the Saints can sign any of these players to an extension that makes their new cap hit less than the total dead money listed above, the net would be saved against the cap. It wouldn’t be much, maybe a few million total for Young and Johnson, and it would require the Saints locking them up before free agency. But it would be something.
Conclusion
Obviously a lot can still change between now and the offseason. But as it stands now, I feel pretty confident making a few predictions about how the Saints will proceed this offseason.
- They will restructure Carr’s contract and triple down on him for one more year
- Ramczyk, Jordan and Hill will all either agree to pay cuts or be cut with June 1 designations
- The Saints will create another $30 million at least with restructures to be active in free agency and keep players like Young and CB Paulson Adebo
This might blow the minds of a few analysts who have been waiting for the Saints to blow things up for years and years. But personally, I can’t see Loomis going down that road, and I think he’ll be able to sell Benson and the new coach on another year with this model with the promise of the rising salary cap making things less tight in 2026 and beyond.
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