The Saints' Future Is Almost Here & It's Bleak (1 Viewer)

CRESS_137

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The Saints have been in salary cap hell for a while, but I hadn’t realized quite how bad it had gotten. Spiller had no place in New Orleans—his first season had been shortened by injury, and even when he was healthy and Mark Ingram went down, he never quite earned the trust of Sean Payton enough to see significant action. The Saints tried to trade him in camp, and, finding no takers, listed him sixth on a six-man RB depth chart and as a healthy inactive for Week 1. Spiller was doomed, but the Saints were so tight up against the cap, they couldn’t physically take on his dead cap money this year and next, not until they reworked Drew Brees’s contract to free up some space.

The Saints' Future Is Almost Here, And It's Bleak
 
We are in excellent shape for the cap next year. Not sure what that headline is supposed to mean. Almost here? I'd guess they mean next year right?

The only other point they make is Brees will have dead money if he isn't with the team after 2017. Spoiler Alert #1: he will be. Spoiler Alert #2: it's impossible to carry a QB of Brees' stature and not risk dead money if he doesn't finish his contract. The Patriots are in even worse shape with possible dead money.
 
Is there really that much money available for next year? Isn't it around $11M with only 46 players signed?

It's more than $20M with basically Snead as the only player we need to re sign for sure - and maybe give Breaux a new contract.
 
Poorly researched, sensationalist article.

The point is fair with respect to this year but the math doesn't support the dead money issue becoming MORE of a burden after this season, as far as I can tell.

Unless we take on more bad contracts (entirely possible), the 2016 cap situation is as bad as it'll get.
 
To the comment about the Pats and Brady the article makes a good point.
To remain competitive, the Saints are constantly getting creative with contracts to free up immediate cap space, at the expense of putting off the piper. This too is a legitimate strategy—the Patriots are masters of it, tweaking Tom Brady’s contract every couple of years. But the Patriots are winning. The Saints are pairing short-sighted cap management with a low hit rate on their signings. There is nothing good happening here.

It isn't a fun subject to talk about, but the author is correct in saying we are headed for a reckoning. We are in a good spot this offseason (though we are still paying for Lewis, Spiller, Browner, and Evans), when Brees leaves we will have a large chunk of cash labeled dead. Sure $18m isn't much compared to what we are dealing with now, but $18m is a lot of money. We need to hope that Brees can play out the entirety of his contract (which we all hope).

But to the article, it isn't sensational journalism really. Its piecing together several articles we would all read and respect, and creating a massive article.
Sources used to create this article include the following:
Reactions to the Drew Brees Contract Extension | Spotrac Research
Add C.J. Spiller to list of New Orleans Saints' spending failures - New Orleans Saints Blog- ESPN
Brees agrees to extension with $44.25M guaranteed - NFL.com
NFL 2016 Team Cap Space Tracker | Spotrac
C.J. Spiller adds to New Orleans Saints' growing list of personnel blunders | NOLA.com

It looks good this offseason, but then we are back in the mud.
 
I think the reckoning was last year and we are already improving. We will compete next year and the year after. The question is whether we can do it in time for Brees.
 
meh. deadspin has gotten progressively worse as the years pass. they used to be funny and entertaining. now they're neither and regurgitate legitimate news with their own ill-informed spin on things to make you click their links.
 
To the comment about the Pats and Brady the article makes a good point.


It isn't a fun subject to talk about, but the author is correct in saying we are headed for a reckoning. We are in a good spot this offseason (though we are still paying for Lewis, Spiller, Browner, and Evans), when Brees leaves we will have a large chunk of cash labeled dead. Sure $18m isn't much compared to what we are dealing with now, but $18m is a lot of money. We need to hope that Brees can play out the entirety of his contract (which we all hope).

But to the article, it isn't sensational journalism really. Its piecing together several articles we would all read and respect, and creating a massive article.
Sources used to create this article include the following:
Reactions to the Drew Brees Contract Extension | Spotrac Research
Add C.J. Spiller to list of New Orleans Saints' spending failures - New Orleans Saints Blog- ESPN
Brees agrees to extension with $44.25M guaranteed - NFL.com
NFL 2016 Team Cap Space Tracker | Spotrac
C.J. Spiller adds to New Orleans Saints' growing list of personnel blunders | NOLA.com

It looks good this offseason, but then we are back in the mud.

No, we are only back in the mud if Brees retires after playing at 38 in 2017. He's not going to.

These are the same writers who were sure we wouldn't get a deal done in 2012. Then they were sure we wouldn't get him extended in 2016. Now they are sure that he'll be gone after 2017, leaving us with 18 million in dead money.

He will be here in 2018 and probably 2019 and none of this dead money concern will be an issue. Bookmark it.
 
meh. deadspin has gotten progressively worse as the years pass. they used to be funny and entertaining. now they're neither and regurgitate legitimate news with their own ill-informed spin on things to make you click their links.

I agree with you on this. They are less sports based, and more...who knows what. The other day 50% of their lead stories were political (Trump and Hillary, not Kaepernick). I think they are a sight that has lost their way, or is struggling though transition.

As to the $18m hit all at once, the article quotes Spotrac
Reactions to the Drew Brees Contract Extension | Spotrac Research
Voidable Years
Structurally the Saints got a bit creative, tacking on three extra years to the contract for matters of spread out the cap hits of the signing bonus. By doing this, the $30M bonus only counts as $6M in allocation cap per season. The contract itself will void after the 2017 season (most likely 5 days after the Super Bowl), making Brees eligible for free agency prior to the 2018 league year. In doing so, this leaves the Saints with a not-so-friendly $18M dead cap hit (the three remaining years of signing bonus allocation). This $18M will hit their 2018 salary cap all at once.

If we were winning more this whole thing would be a none issue, but because we aren't we are becoming a case study.
 
That dead money hit is only if Brees retires after 2017 (he is not signing elsewhere, 100% guaranteed) and we do not rework his contract. Do you think Brees is going to retire in less then 2 years? Before he even plays at the age of 39?

Be honest.
 
That dead money hit is only if Brees retires after 2017 (he is not signing elsewhere, 100% guaranteed) and we do not rework his contract. Do you think Brees is going to retire in less then 2 years? Before he even plays at the age of 39?

Be honest.

Do I? No. But then again, there are also other factors we need to take into account,such as injuries.

Either way, If he plays til he is 39 or not, if he is out the door by 40 or 41 then we are still taking on $6m in dead cap space each year, and that is what the article is talking about. We are in a never ending cycle of salary cap hell. The salary cap goes up, and thats great, but we are still not working with a full deck of cards as we are weighted down by contracts of players no longer on our team. This isn't new, kicking the can down the road is something we are familiar with, but when its the end of the line we are going to be in a bad spot (which is what the article is talking about).

Like I said, win, and this isn't talked about. Lose, and you are a HBS case study about what not to do in football management.
 
Poorly researched, sensationalist article.

The point is fair with respect to this year but the math doesn't support the dead money issue becoming MORE of a burden after this season, as far as I can tell.

Unless we take on more bad contracts (entirely possible), the 2016 cap situation is as bad as it'll get.

Probably the same person who will write an article next week if the Saints win that we are a first rate franchise and the sky is the limit for the future.

The internet has really killed the sports writing business. It is about getting clicks now vs. making points. The best way to get it done is the weekly mania or panic motif.

When it was just newspapers writing it the guys had jobs no matter what so they didn't have to give into the need to tap the sensationalist nature of all human beings (weather anyone of us will admit it everyone has that in their nature deep down somewhere). Today you get clicks or get gone so why not write the sky is falling bits on loosing weeks and the sky is the limit on winning weeks.
 

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