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

DSnfla said
Siglar is one of my least favorite guys covering the Saints, but this is spot on ( maybe his only good write up) It does too much damage to 6/1 Carr. It send a signal to the players, coaches and fans that 2025 is a wasted yr. Yes we get 30 mil back on 6/1 but not only will FA be pretty much over and the even middle FAs be signed already ( Including our own ) but our rookie class will have to wait till then to sign , so no rookie mini camp.

We'd pretty much have to roll with Rattler @ QB or waste 10 mil of that Carr savings on a cheap vet QB
If you think the fans are down on the Saints just wait till it's mid season and we've only won 1 or 2 games. Any excitement that a new coaching staff would have had will be mostly gone.

Nope , I'm not saying we mortgage the future in 25 , I'm saying we restructure DC, re-sign our own FAs that we want to keep. Add a couple young upgrades in FA to build with. Get 2-3 good promising starters in the draft and coach and develop the guys that didn't get it that we have now, and with a little luck from the injury gods maybe win the division.
Then next yr we can move on from Carr if we feel like we have THE guy @ QB in the building

And the light at the end of the tunnel is a very early estimate of more than $101 million in cap space for 2026. Those kinds of funds would give Kellen Moore the ability to rebuild the team however he wanted to in free agency.

This is the last part of option 2. Yes option 2 is the harder way, but I think it gets the Saints where they need to be quicker. They will have full funds with Carr off the books. They will have to carry Carr’s now 70 million cap hit to June 1. Yes you get 50 million back but the same thing you won’t be able to spend it until June 2 well after you may need it. Carr’s dead cap goes up to close to 60 million I think because his dead cap this year is the 41 million. This is from last years restructure. So cutting Carrin 2026 they will between 50-60 million of dead cap hitting 2027. Or cut him this year he will count 20 plus in 2026 and off the books in 2027.

The Saints likely converted the maximum ($28.79 million) of Carr’s $30 million salary to a bonus which would reduce his salary cap number by $23.032 million, going from $35.7 million down to $12.67 million. The move will increase Carr’s future salary cap numbers by about $5.76 million per season. Carr’s 2025 salary cap figure is now $51.46 million, 5th highest in the NFL.

His dead money in 2025 now sits at $40.132 million an increase of $23 million from where it originally was. While this certainly does not guarantee him a roster spot in 2025 it will give him a much better chance of maintaining his status as starting QB even if he plays at an average or slightly below average level in 2024.