Saints could get to $14.61 million under the cap without restructuring Derek Carr, after Saints salary cap potentially increases by $5M
A trade is more likely to work now, but there are a lot of moving parts so it's hard to give it much consideration. A Carr restructure gives you a ton of room to operate and isn't some damning move like people make it out to be. You will have a ton of money in 2026 and plenty of options to maneuver in 2025. I really don't get why people think they should handcuff themselves other than they think for some reason restructuring Carr damns the team. It doesn't. You don't have to sign another QB this year and the effect next year isn't that significant due to the reduced number of expiring contracts you have to restructure.
Your looking at 12m on the high end. You could squeeze money here and there. With that you must sign a starting caliber G, TE and DE. You also need a viable QB option. Beyond those you still need to look at DT, TE#2, CB and WR. Then you have to consider any scheme change or coaches players. You can't wait till June 1st on all that. By that time the FA market is dried up. You also want to fill those holes before the draft so you don't have to reach.Per Over The Cap’s Saints cap figures, Saints went from an estimated -$51 million over the cap to now sitting at an estimated -$47.18 million over. The additional $4 million estimate is really helpful for the Saints to have extra room for a few key re-signings and viable low cost FA signings, depending on how the (re)signings’ first years are structured.
Since the cap increased, Saints could now further afford to not require restructuring Derek Carr to become cap compliant and even create additional positive cap space without relying on his contract.
11 current key players/starters would be restructured to get under by the new league year date. That’s if the FO’s plan would be to designate Carr’s release as a post-June 1 release which would come with 30M cap space but after June 1.
The initial 11 restructures would be JT Gray (1.2M savings), Erik McCoy (6.7M savings), Demario Davis (5.6M savings), Carl Granderson (5.25M savings), Tyrann Mathieu (4.5M savings), Alvin Kamara (1.39M savings), Cesar Ruiz (6.38M savings), Pete Werner (2.46M savings), Foster Moreau (2.05M savings), Cam Jordan (9M savings), and Taysom Hill (restructure or paycut to around $5.83M cap savings).
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Restructuring those 11 players potentially clears $50.38 million and would put the Saints’ cap space at about $3,197,713 under the cap when the league year starts on March 12. Based on OTC figures.
Releasing Jamaal Williams ($1.59M cap savings), Cedrick Wilson Jr. ($2.4M cap savings), and Nathan Shepherd (1.235M cap savings) (32 years old in Oct), and restructuring Khalen Saunders (1.9M savings) (29 years old in Aug) could bring the Saints cap space to about $10,320,213. If Nathan Shepherd is restructured (3.05M cap savings), instead of released, the available cap space could reach $12,133,963 from those moves.
Saunders and Shepherd are becoming older DTs and haven’t produced like starters. But the Saints need DT depth going into the offseason to not create an overly urgent hole to address with the 9th pick. It seems realistic to keep both Saunders and Shepherd for another season and utilize the 5M combined cap savings from their restructures.
If the Saints agree to an extension with Rashid Shaheed during the beginning of the 2025 offseason, his extension could bring $2.48M cap savings according to Over The Cap’s figures. Saints could then reach $14,613,963 in available cap space after Rashid’s potential extension.
Ideally, you don’t want to restructure a 36 year old Cam Jordan. But the immediate cap savings of nearly 9M for Cam alone is too significant that it has to be done to become cap compliant and immediately create space. It would be a matter of pushing the lesser of major cap hits of aging/declining players between Cam and Derek Carr. Cam’s restructure dead money wouldn’t impact the Saints’ 2026 cap as much if majority of Carr’s contract is off the books in 2026 due to a possible post-June 1.
This could be an option if Kellen Moore wants a fresh start at QB with younger QBs in year 1. $10-14.6 million in available cap space seems to be viable to operate with at the beginning of the offseason. FA signings could still be made and there’s enough to sign draft picks. But draft pick signings could wait until June. 31M cap space would be available after June 1 from Ramczyk’s retirement and Carr’s post-June 1 release.
A trade is more likely to work now, but there are a lot of moving parts so it's hard to give it much consideration. A Carr restructure gives you a ton of room to operate and isn't some damning move like people make it out to be. You will have a ton of money in 2026 and plenty of options to maneuver in 2025. I really don't get why people think they should handcuff themselves other than they think for some reason restructuring Carr damns the team. It doesn't. You don't have to sign another QB this year and the effect next year isn't that significant due to the reduced number of expiring contracts you have to restructure.