NOF: Saints in position to get under the cap with ease and create another $30+ million in cap space to add new players
As already posted, plenty of teams are spending more than us without being tremendously over the cap each year. They pay base salaries, we pay restructuring bonuses, the cash still goes out the door.
If you look over the last 10 years the Saints are still very high up in what is spent. And, how much flexibility they have will depend on the age of the team. The team is old right now which means less flexibility. That changes when Cam, Demario, Lattimore, AK, MT, Mathieu, Ram, etc. are gone. Then they will have that flexibility again. And, yes, they will start to get less flexible over time again.
But, my point was that having flexibility is pointless if you aren't using the space. If you have space, you could be spending more for more and better players. I'd also wager that a lot of the teams with all that flexibility are young teams with young QBs that are still on rookie deals.
But, again, what players have we lost or failed to sign because we didn't have the money?
And, what players do we want to cut that we can't cut?