Saints could get to $14.61 million under the cap without restructuring Derek Carr, after Saints salary cap potentially increases by $5M

Stalwart385 said
Car was 7 mil in his first year. The lowest you can go in year 1 in about 1.3 if there are no signing bonuses. Basically, that would never happen for anything but vet minimum. For example last year they signed Chase Young to a 13mil deal and had to pay 4 mil the first year. To do that they had to push 9mil to this year.

Again relying on the draft to fill all those holes is not a good move. If you want to draft well at least give yourself an option in FA so you don't have to reach.

Carr had a base salary of 1.5 with 5.7 as signing bonus which is apart of the 28 million total. The Saints may not be giving anyone that type of money this year. Chase deal was setup differently he had game bonuses which was guaranteed by playing which turned into a signing bonus. His base was 1.12 with a bonus taking it to 3.4. Still low base with bonus.