salary cap hell!

You just aren't listening to what people are saying and keep trying to move the bar to the coaches and the players. I am saying that we have less recourse to fix roster problems because of the way we manage the cap. Pushing the money into multiple future years we can't predict instead of paying salaries year to year isn't a good strategy when done to the degree we're doing it. We have done it to the maximum and it has hurt the teams ability to improve the roster by subtraction.

Look at Ramczyk for example. He has a big contract and the cap hit for him was low during the first 3 years of the contract and the highest salaries and bonus numbers are coming due now. If we'd paid more of that upfront, we would be able to move off of his contract because we would already have paid him some of the guaranteed portions while he was still healthy. But he's not healthy, his knee is worn out and isn't getting better. He is currently going to account more than 10% of our cap number while he is in decline or even possibly unable to play. If we restructure him it will guarantee parts of his salary that are not guaranteed now. Which will only push his cap number higher in years he is even less likely to be playing. Who in their right mind is converting non-guaranteed salary to fully guaranteed bonuses for a player who could possibly never play again? Only the Saints are doing that and this is only one example of many. When the many contracts like this are taken all together, it's a huge mess with few good choices to make.

I know someone is going to say something like "you can never predict injuries, that's just bad luck" which is true. But you also don't have to leave so little flexibility that you can't deal with a problem like Ram, or Michael Thomas, or a potential problem with Lattimore, or AK's inevitable drop off. The NFL is too unpredictable to be planning for the cap 5 years out.
I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding between Cap Defenders and Cap Truthers. The Cap Defenders keep explaining the process and how it works. They pat the chicken littles on the head and tell them there is nothing to worry about. Cap Truthers understand the how, they just don't understand the why. Why operate like this? Why leave yourself so little wiggle room and no margin for error? Why operate with so little flexibility? Why is the house on fire but nobody else seems to notice?

And the biggest why for me is this, in this copycat league where people will steal anything that works, why don't other teams start each offseason in the hole 60-100 million over the cap? You mean to tell me that we have the one guy on earth who has solved the mystery of the salary cap? We see teams go all in when they have the QB to make a run and assemble dream teams but they don't end up where the Saints have been for years. Why? Why don't they go all in and then stay all in even when it no longer makes sense?

As a former cap defender I know all the arguments. The arguments were sound when we had Brees and SP. The strategy was sound. But there's just no way to justify it now. And it's not hindsight. For years I've been talking about life after Brees and what that would look like. I didn't think there was any way they would adopt all in as standard operating procedure. But here we are...

But the point is moot. At this point they have to do what they have to do. They no longer have a choice. They backed themselves into a corner and this is life now for Saints fans. Our Super Bowl is the offseason as we watch the Saints heroically get under the cap and then sign a few bargain bin free agents.