Today we’re wrapping up our six-part series on the teams with the worst salary cap situations in 2026, and it’s only fitting that we do it with the franchise responsible for the phrase “salary cap hell” entering the lexicon of the average NFL fan.

While the Saints are a long way away from the massive budget deficits they seemed to carry annually in the last decade, they still have a bit of work to do. They’re one of six teams with deficits in the neighborhood of $25 million or more in effective cap space in 2026, per Over The Cap. 

• Chiefs (-$62.7M)
• Cowboys (-$60.3M)
• Vikings (-$51M)
• Dolphins ($-31.1M)
• Browns (-$27M)
• Saints (-$23.6M)

Effective cap space is a neat house metric from OTC that accounts for how much budget teams should have next year after filling out a full roster and signing their draft class. The NFL mandates all teams stay below the salary cap at all times, so these six teams have to get back in the black by the time the 2026 league year starts in March. That means each squad has some decisions to make, and those implications are what we’re exploring in this series. 

A Brief History Of The Saints’ Cap Strategy

While the Saints and the salary cap have been a punchline for years and years, the truth is the organization probably deserves much of the credit for being on the cutting edge when it comes to finding ways to create a competitive edge through its cap management. The idea behind the NFL salary cap is that every team is on a level playing field when it comes to money, whether it’s a big market like Dallas or a smaller one like Phoenix. In theory, that should prevent those teams with access to more revenue from being able to just spend their way to a title. Everyone has the same budget and the team that makes the best spending decisions has a leg up in building the best team. 

(The other big benefit of a salary cap from an NFL owner’s perspective is that it suppresses overall wages for players more than a true free market would, but that’s a different discussion.) 

However, the Saints realized something important at some point in the 2010s, as in the wake of the 2011 lockout that led to a new CBA, the league’s revenue took off. As a result, so did the salary cap, growing several percentage points at a time. The central tenet undergirding the Saints’ strategy — and the strategy several other teams have now adopted — is that a dollar against the cap today is worth more than a dollar against the cap tomorrow since it accounts for a bigger percentage. As a result, there’s more incentive to maximize space in any current season since the purchasing power is greater. 

That strategy required ownership to be more comfortable spending cash now that would be accounted for against the cap later, something not all owners are willing to greenlight. But the Saints were. Critics hammered them for what they deemed “reckless” restructuring, saying it was akin to maxing out credit cards where the bill would come due eventually without understanding the sound financial tenets at the heart of the strategy. Ultimately, thinking outside the box helped New Orleans extend its competitive window in the final years of the Drew Brees era and lock up a transformational 2017 draft class for the long haul. Aspects of their strategy, like void years, have now become mainstream with other teams. 

No edge lasts forever, though. The pandemic and resulting dip in league revenues was a hit. Losing Brees and then HC Sean Payton — a likely Hall of Fame duo of quarterback and coach — was a blow few organizations would have been able to navigate gracefully. The Saints could have hit the reset button to process all the dead money from the years of their strategy, but GM Mickey Loomis elected to double down on remaining competitive behind HC Dennis Allen and QB Derek Carr. Neither man is with the team now, with Allen getting fired during the 2024 season and Carr retiring with a surprise shoulder injury. 

That leads to where the Saints find themselves ahead of the 2026 season. 

New Orleans Saints: -$23,568,075

Firing Allen and seeing Carr retire unexpectedly forced Loomis’ hand as far as the reset button. The Saints are paying $108 million in dead money on the salary cap this year, nearly 40 percent of their budget. They already have $66 million in dead money on the books for 2026, including $36 million for Carr. As an example of how low expectations were for the team in a rebuilding year, first-year HC Kellen Moore is 5-10 in his debut and the city is thrilled. 

Once again, the Saints will need to restructure their way back into the black. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, though. OTC has the Saints with $130 million in projected effective cap space in 2027, currently ninth in the league. Obviously a ton will change with that picture in the next 12 months, and some of New Orleans’ restructures will eat into that space. Still, it’s a polar opposite place to be from where the Saints have been for over a decade. 

Relative to some of the holes the Saints have had to dig out of to get back under the cap in the last 10 years, this current overage is just a blip. When the NFL salary cap dipped due to the loss of revenue in the 2020 pandemic, New Orleans had to pull out of a $100 million deficit. The current overage is less than a quarter of that. 

The list of restructure candidates and the potential savings for the Saints includes: 

• DE Chase Young ($10.9M)
• DE Carl Granderson ($8.6M)
• C Erik McCoy ($6.9M)
• TE Juwan Johnson ($6.3M)
• S Justin Reid ($6.3M)
• G Cesar Ruiz ($6.2M)
• DT Davon Godchaux ($4.1M)
• LB Pete Werner ($4M)

In total, if New Orleans pulled all of these levers, it would add around $53.3 million in cap space to the books for 2026. That’s plenty to knock out the team’s deficit twice over. Even if the Saints don’t restructure every deal, they have a couple of other ways to create spending room that we’ll get into momentarily. 

The Saints will probably restructure the deals for Johnson, Reid and Young. Johnson and Reid have their 2026 salaries fully guaranteed already, so even though they both are right at that milestone of 30 years old that teams are cautious of, it makes sense to stretch out that cash. Young is owed $14.8 million in 2026, $9 million of which is already guaranteed and the remainder of which becomes guaranteed in March. For practical purposes, that makes his deal already guaranteed, and at 27 years old next year, he’s right in the window for what teams look for in restructure candidates. 

Those three moves would get the Saints pretty close to being in the black, so they could exercise a little bit of discretion with the other players. Restructuring Granderson would free up the most space and half his 2026 compensation of $12.75 million is already guaranteed. However, he just turned 29 and doesn’t have so much as a quarterback hit since Week 4. Werner’s salary of a little over $6 million is guaranteed, but he cropped up in trade rumors ahead of the deadline this year, which is something to file away for the offseason. 

Ruiz was also mentioned in some trade rumors, and he has no guarantees remaining on the $9.5 million he’s owed in 2026. McCoy is in a similar position with a $10 million salary, none of which is guaranteed. The two have been core players for a few years now and are making extremely reasonable money for their production, especially with how much the market for interior offensive linemen has grown over the past few years. Ordinarily they’d both be prime restructure candidates. 

However, the trade buzz around Ruiz means some sort of shakeup can’t be ruled out. McCoy has been out since mid-October but has had his role filled by C Luke Fortner without a precipitous dropoff. Fortner is younger, but is a pending free agent. Still, if the Saints want to redistribute how they’re allocating their resources, it’s not out of the question they revisit the interior offensive line. 

Stay Or Go

The biggest decisions the Saints will have to make in 2026 is what to do with a handful of aging former stars, guys who were pivotal pieces at one point but who might very well be at or near the end of their illustrious careers. One, RB Alvin Kamara, is under contract next year. The other three — DE Cameron Jordan, LB Demario Davis and TE Taysom Hill — are on voiding contracts. 

If any of those guys decides to retire, that makes things simple. Kamara turns 31 in July, Hill will be 36 in August and both Jordan and Davis turn 37 next year. Retirements are treated like cuts against the salary cap, but there’s a trick the Saints have leaned on in the past of waiting to process retirements until after June 1, spreading out the dead money over two seasons instead of one. In each situation, a retirement would save the Saints significant money against the salary cap. 

Jordan and Davis have been productive starters this year and don’t seem to be dramatically slowing down. Hill returned from a major injury this year and didn’t look like nearly the same player. Kamara has played just 11 games due to a knee injury this year and is on pace for what would easily be a career-worst season. His name came up at the trade deadline but he told Loomis he didn’t want to play for any team besides the Saints at this point in his career and would retire otherwise. 

Still, retirement is an intensely personal decision for every player and only they, plus the people close to them, know which way they’re leaning. If they don’t retire, the Saints will still have to make a decision on whether they want them back on the roster in 2026. 

Kamara’s the youngest of the group, but running backs age differently than other positions. The past two years have been clear signs of decline for Kamara, even setting aside the injury this year. The Saints already guaranteed $3 million of his $11.5 million salary next year, and approaching a franchise icon like him for a pay cut in a contract year would be a thorny proposition. There would be precedent either way the Saints elect to go, whether it’s riding things out for another year or letting him go to save the cash. 

Jordan has 8.5 sacks this year and is adding to what seems like an increasingly strong case for the Hall of Fame. If the Saints do decide to re-sign him, an extension could also save some cap space by keeping the dead money on his deal spread out. Jordan will have a lot of say in this, as while he loves New Orleans, the rebuilding phase has been tough on him. Davis has remained solid as well, even if his play has slipped from his former All-Pro level in the past two seasons. He has a strong career as a minister waiting for him whenever he decides he’s done playing. 

The most likely player to be gone from the group is Hill. Moore has used him in the same Swiss Army knife role, but with diminishing returns due to age and the accumulation of injuries. If Hill wants to keep exploring his playing options, the Saints can add a dummy salary to his contract, then designate him a June 1 cut, splitting the $13.7 million in dead money on his contract between 2026 and 2027 rather than taking it all in 2026. 

That allows the Saints to reap the cap benefits of making Hill a June 1 cut without needing to hold him on the roster until then, allowing him a chance to sign elsewhere. Teams can use two June 1 designations each year, so the Saints could pick one more out of this quartet to move on from with that benefit. If a player retires, it’s easy. All the team has to do is restructure the deal and wait until June 1 to process the retirement to reap the same benefit. 

The Saints have a few other pending free agents they might like to bring back, including Fortner, but overall it’s not a long list. Starting CB Alontae Taylor, who primarily works from the slot, would probably be the top priority, but he turns 28 next year and might have a hot market. New Orleans probably wants to stop the talent drain to other teams and flip that back around, but in all likelihood, their financial situation will dictate one more year of belt-tightening. 

Beyond that, the future is interesting. The Saints have won three in a row and there are some real signs of life from Moore’s offense and the rookie season of second-round QB Tyler Shough. The defense has been spunky all year under DC Brandon Staley, and his track record is strong. With games against the Titans and Falcons to close the season, the Saints have a real chance to build some momentum and become a popular dark horse team in 2026. 

From there, 2027 looms as a real potential rocket launch point. If Moore and Shough continue to develop, the Saints will have a real opportunity with all the money they have available to really get back to being an aggressive organization.