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

oysters said
But they didn't have to restructure the whole team to make those cuts. Denver kept Wilson for a year because of the cap. Then they cut him when they could. Car isn't the answer long term but neither are most of the players everyone wants to restructure instead. I'd rather keep one guy who, let's be honest, is still a good player despite what others will say. Let the aging defense go then cut Carr next year when it's more palatable.

If it was just a function of deciding between Carr and the vets, that would make sense. But I think the objective is to avoid the future $80 million cap hit by not restructuring the contract and then doing a post June 1st cut. Most of the vets contracts expire after 2025, meaning we wouldn't be signing up for even more cap hits, just spreading the hits out to future years where there's more cap space.