This is the year to rebuild

Aaron Schatz today in his 'bold moves' column:

Don't restructure Derek Carr's contract

The Saints are in big trouble. They are currently a league-leading $54 million over the cap. They also have very few players they can cut to get actual salary cap relief. According to OverTheCap.com, there is no cut the Saints could make before March 12 that would save them more than $4 million in cap space. They're going to have to get below the cap by restructuring contracts, which just moves more dead money down the line and makes it harder to get a clean slate and rebuild the roster.

The Saints need to take their medicine as soon as possible, and one way to do that is to avoid restructuring Carr's contract. That's going to be very hard to do, because a Carr restructure would save the Saints $30 million on the cap. But it would also tie New Orleans to him for a couple of more seasons and push more money down the line, which makes it harder to split from Carr anytime soon. Yes, Carr had a 63.4 QBR in 2024, but hanging on to a 34-year-old quarterback widely seen as mediocre is emblematic of the Saints' problems. They need to resist a Carr restructure so they can finally move on from him after the 2025 season.