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

And that’s the big difference in these two approaches. The Saints could restructure Carr and make many of the same moves not out of survival, but with a goal of competing this season. If they cut Carr, they’re making those same roster decisions, plus more austere cuts and restructures, just to field a team in September.

If you’re curious, this plan (with no other moves) would leave the Saints with an estimated $54.6 million in salary cap space for 2026. It would raise Carr’s salary cap hit to $69.2 million next year, but the Saints could release him at that point and get back up to $50 million if they use the post-June 1 designation, or $9.5 million if it’s a standard release. The downside is releasing him with that designation next year, 2026, leaves behind $40.4 million as dead money in 2027. At the same time the salary cap could be well over $300 million by that point and you can justify taking that hit.

The bottom line: Restructuring Carr in 2025 does not mean he’ll return in 2026 so long as the salary cap keeps trending up.

https://saintswire.usatoday.com/202...y-cap-derek-carr-saints-contract-roster-cuts/
Pretty good read. I tend to prefer option 1, as I feel like it offers the best short term flexibility while still leaving us in a spot to move on from him next year, likely with a post June 1 move.

Why make the move now while your salary cap is in peril where as you can wait a year and do it when you have much more flexibility over the next 2-3 seasons? You’d be choking yourself this off-season for limited benefit and really hamstringing your first year head coach. And it’s not like Carr is some god awful QB some make him out to be to where you should be THIS desperate to get out of the contract.

Use this as a bridge year. Find a reasonably priced veteran like Fields or Rush to bring in to compete and/or draft someone in the first three rounds if you really like a prospect. Prepare for life after Carr, but keep him on so you can actually make a handful of significant moves this off-season in the meantime as we usher in the new program.