Saints restructure Ramczyk to vet minimum per Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap

Rouxble said
If we could have avoided restructuring Ram's contract with a cleaner cap, in theory we could have released him last year with a total cap charge of $14.1m in 2024 with no future charges on the books. He would have received his $6.5m in injury-guaranteed salary and could have signed a one-day contract at a later date to officially retire.

Because of the restructuring each year, the cap hits are instead the below:

2024: $12.3m
2025: $11.1m
2026: $12.0m

That's $35.4m in cap charges spread over three years for someone who hasn't played since 2023 instead of $14.1m in one year to rip the bandaid off. Ram’s contract was actually just about perfect in term and dollars paid, but the restructuring is what has us still paying for it long after he played his last down.

So this was a bad decision, no? But Loomis was "forced" to restructure Ram due to the messy cap situation the team was already in, a situation of his creation. Basically, I'm done letting Loomis off the hook (not that anyone here is doing that). I'm no cap expert but I feel like Loomis has not taken enough heat for his cap negligence. Would love for some ex-GM cap expert to do a story about the current Saints cap situation (by far the worst in the league) and contract decisions of the last few years because as it stands, it is hard for me, a cap novice, to understand just how bad things have been.