Saints Cap Moves: $27,092,090 cap space ….. 8 restructures, 3 extensions, 3 pay cut, 1 release [All current cap moves are in OP]

St. Geezy said
I could buy this if it weren’t for a couple of things…1.) we have gone after some high priced free agents and gotten outbid past our final number. 2.) the space we made this year to be applied next year could be created next year. There’s no real advantage to creating the space a year ahead of time.

As much as I harp on the fact that the team has indicated they want Carr as their starting QB next year, I would say the team aligning themselves to move on from him this year has better odds than this being some sort of long game play to move space to next year.

I personally subscribe to the theory that there is a back channel trade being worked out behind the scenes. We seem to really want a big time corner or a new WR target, but all is quiet on any free agent pursuits. There is also the gaping hole at LG.

I have a hard time seeing us creating space, pursuing who/what we have pursued, then just creating more space merely to sit on it. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Not all of the things they did this year to create cap space can be done next year. Specifically pay cuts for Cam, Tyrann, Wilson, and eventually Hill, can only be done this year since they are all in the last year of their contracts. IIRC, that's already around $16 million for Cam and Tyrann and I think could be around another $10 million for Hill.

Maybe this is for some sort of big trade, although I haven't heard that anyone that has a big salary is available, but I think it's more likely to try to get guy like Allen and Scherff on one year deals in the $8 to $10 million range which they likely won't take until at least June 1 if they are still on the market.

The less likely possibility is that they are clearing space to trade Carr, but it's for this year after June 1.

At the same point after missing on Ward and Cupp, they may have decided that they will just roll the money over to make the cap easier to deal with next year.