NOF: Saints in position to get under the cap with ease and create another $30+ million in cap space to add new players

Rouxble said

Except I did. I posted a table showing how it would be impossible for the Saints to get under the cap by cutting players when practically every other team can, isn’t that a lack of options relative to other teams?

It would be impossible to know who the Saints wanted that we didn’t get to sign, but there’s plenty of free agents that we would prefer over who we ended up with. For example, you’ll never convince anybody that Nathan Shepherd was the DT the Saints coveted in free agency, but the local spin machine will pump that sunshine and say we got a diamond in the rough.

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Why would they want to get under the cap by cutting players they want to keep? Yes, it limits that option but it's not an option any team would want to take if they don't have to take it. And, that is exactly the downside of how some teams run the cap. They have no choice but to cut players they want to keep in order to get under the cap. They don't have the option to keep them. As I said, different methods have different options that are limited.

I'll give you a pass on the free agents that we couldn't sign due to money since yes, it is impossible to say if there were any, although I don't recall the team brining in any free agent that they lost due to a bidding war that they lost. Some players chose not to come here, but not because the money was vastly off. Well, other than refusing to fully guarantee Deshaun Watson's contract which would have been insane.

But, honestly, other than maybe Hedrickson, who have they lost that they wanted to keep because they didn't have the money to pay them? Maybe there are a few that I am missing or forgot, but it's not this huge number of players and it's no worse than the number of guys that other teams had to cut to get under the cap. Every method of managing the cap has it's issues and limits certain options.