re: Saints starting the cap process, restructure Lattimore

quote:

---

Having $50 in dead cap money for people who aren't on the team also doesn't work

---

No one is going to care next year when DA is fired halfway through the season and we’re truly locked into a rebuild for the next 2-3 years. If you’re going to suck, better to suck and eat the dead cap during those years.

The rebuild might not even take 3-4 years. Or it might last longer. They have to start hitting on their draft picks. That’s just the bottom line. We weren’t supposed to be very good in 2017 but we hit on a once in a million draft class and a couple of key FA signings in 2018-2019 that carried us for years. But now because we’ve hit below league average on a lot of picks, in addition to the cap pushing, we’re in the predicament we are now. Just look at how quickly the Lions got better after Campbell’s first season. They hit on a lot of their picks. That shite makes you better very quickly.

quote:

---

Isn't this only going to make future years dead money even worse? I fricking hate this franchise.

---

There is virtually no way to get under the cap without restructuring. They could cut/trade every player on the roster who would have a positive cap effect and doing so would barely net them $40M in cap space. Before this move, we needed an estimated $87M just to get compliant.

As others have said, this is just a part of their strategy. The dollars are worth more today than they are in the future (ex: $10M in today's cap is around 4.5% of the cap. In 2026, for example, it will likely be more like 3.7%), so this is the choice they made to exploit that. There is no other way to get compliant anyway.

There are a ton of "safe" restructures on the roster. They may choose to not do a few of them for truly aging players, and they may choose to add ghost years for others that allow us to extend those hits even farther and reduce the short term more. Most of these players have received prior restructures anyway and were never really trade eligible. Marshon never was, and people talking about trading him just don't understand the cap. It's possible, but unlikely.

The only one that is truly a potentially franchise-altering decision is Carr. Carr's contract, if restructured, generates around $23M in cap space this year. We can get compliant without that, but it would be tight. If we DON'T DO IT, we could potentially move off him after 2024 without too much heartburn (still a good chunk of change, but manageable). If we do, we will have to likely keep him through the 2026 season.

quote:

---

The Rams built their Super Bowl team on the other trick to get around the cap: cash over cap. The Rams would pay guys like Von Miller a massive up front check to cover the whole contract but spread the accounting over the life of the contract. Stan Kronke has the spare cash to do this over and over. Gayle Benson does not, so instead the saints have to take advantage of the future value of salary trick.

---

And the rams just rebuilt themselves through the draft. They made 14 selections and have netted 5 full time starters from the 2013 draft.

Saints eventually need more volume from their drafts to make this work. Cap work gets a lot tougher when you get 182 non special teams snaps total from foskey, Miller, saldiveri, haener. Cap challenged teams need more cheap snaps from their draft picks to make this work.

quote:

---

The only one that is truly a potentially franchise-altering decision is Carr. Carr's contract, if restructured, generates around $23M in cap space this year. We can get compliant without that, but it would be tight. If we DON'T DO IT, we could potentially move off him after 2024 without too much heartburn (still a good chunk of change, but manageable). If we do, we will have to likely keep him through the 2026 season.

---

This is all very true. Sadly, what we did for Cam is going to create a similar (although lesser) situation.

quote:

---

Salary carries more value in future years than current years because the salary cap always goes up

---

even though this is true it doesn’t benefit your team to always have dead cap dollars on the books

Us losing 20-35% of the cap because of backloaded contracts that we are hamstrung with reduces options for maneuvering those players as assets while also taking away any flexibility to get off those deals

It’s a short sighted approach. Understandable while in a championship competing window…not a SOP for how to run a franchise

I was for can kicking with Prime Brees. Now don’t touch Carr contract. Kick as little as possible next few years and draft as many players as possible.

quote:

---

Salary carries more value in future years than current years because the salary cap always goes up. The further down the road a team can kick any dollar in salary gives that dollar greater value because of the rising cap

---

What an idiot.

Every, I mean every analyst says the path the Saints are on is unsustainable. Every analyst.

quote:

---

On the bright side we’re going to be 94 million dollars over the cap in 2026 IF they stop with the can kicking.

---

Until they fill out the roster. That cap space only includes 31 players under contract. They would still need another 22 players for the active roster, plus another 8-10 for the PS.

And, they need to keep the can in 2024 to clear $74M to get under the cap, sign draft picks, and fill the remaining spots ($76M over with 43 players under contract)

Then they'll need to do the same in 2024 to clear the $26.5M they are over, plus the 2024 money they kick into 2025, plus the 25+ players they still need to get under contract to fill the roster & PS

We have this discussion every year and every year it is the same. The salary cap does not exist as a finite number. Loomis is a math wiz who always gets around it. There is really no reason for us to complain about what is essentially an accounting function.

It was not that long ago that the Saints could not consistently field a competitive team and fans proved that they will not show up in droves to support a losing team. We can hate on DA all we want (rightfully so), but he will more than likely finish this season with his first winning season. I don't think the Saints brass thinks they can tear it down to the studs and rebuild.