re: Per OTC, the Saints are $72.58M over the 2024 cap

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This is also assuming an outlier event doesn't cause the necessity to start when we don't expect it, which would be lighting a fuse...Ram's knee is that variable potentially. Our entire cap restructuring philosophy is based in extending he and Lattimore for the bulk of our cap relief, but if he has to retire after this season, then we have to eat all that cap we kicked down the road and we lose the flexibility. That would be official "hold onto your butts" season.

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What's cool about Ram's deal is he has an injury guarantee for his 2024 contract. So, if I understand it correctly, his entire 2024 salary would be guaranteed in the event of an injury. Loomsing

Sarcasm aside, that should at least buy them a year to eat a chunk of Ram's contract. Then work with him on his retirement to spread the dead cap between 2025 & 2026 (similar to the Brees retirement restructure).

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I just don't think people understand how long it will take to unwind this. It will take a full year of being committed to a rebuild just to get us in a situation where we can start the cap rebuild. That's 2 years, min, but likely more like 3 (or 4 to totally clear up our cap situation).

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This could actually be much worse than you laid out. NFL also has a minimum cash spend requirement tied into the cap. So, when dropping contracts for dead money or letting them expire to run out the bonuses; they still have to make sure they give out large chucks of $$$ to meet those minimum cash requirements.