Article: Saints could be big players in next wave of free agency (speculative analysis) (1 Viewer)

Sorry if this has been answered, but I’m not a salary cap expert.
But will there be a time were the Saints can manage the cap in a regular manner without borrowing from other years and without having a “tank season?”
To build on what @Rouxble said (though he covered it well).

The Saints were trending towards that direction. Slowly managing it back the other way.

I think they would have made an even stronger push to get to the middle if they hadn’t gotten Carr.

But now, it makes more sense to live a little closer to the edge and be the best you can reasonably be. Then, once they’ve exhausted Carr’s window, either dial back again or find another vet QB to do the same thing with.

The QB situation really dictates a lot. If you’ve got a good one, it makes more sense to push while you can. If you’ve got one on a rookie deal (like the Eagles, Dolphins, etc) you can do a little bit of both since the QB deal isn’t stretching you to begin with.

So no, you don’t HAVE to live through a tank year. Although it would certainly accelerate the process (like the Dolphins in 2018).
 
Sorry if this has been answered, but I’m not a salary cap expert.
But will there be a time were the Saints can manage the cap in a regular manner without borrowing from other years and without having a “tank season?”
It has been answered but ML is the master. There are no tank seasons under his strategy UNLESS the cap goes down like it did after Covid. He builds in the fact that the Cap is going up and all the noise about being in cap hell is just noise. He will restructure contracts to create more time with signing bonuses spread into the future. Cut bait when he has to. Then do it again
 
If it comes to winning by signing players that make team better or comp.picks, I'm taking winning. Comp picks have such a low chance of being NFL contributes.

4th round and beyond almost feel the same as UDFA signings, in that they have about the same chance of making an impact in the NFL.
 
To build on what @Rouxble said (though he covered it well).

The Saints were trending towards that direction. Slowly managing it back the other way.

I think they would have made an even stronger push to get to the middle if they hadn’t gotten Carr.

But now, it makes more sense to live a little closer to the edge and be the best you can reasonably be. Then, once they’ve exhausted Carr’s window, either dial back again or find another vet QB to do the same thing with.

The QB situation really dictates a lot. If you’ve got a good one, it makes more sense to push while you can. If you’ve got one on a rookie deal (like the Eagles, Dolphins, etc) you can do a little bit of both since the QB deal isn’t stretching you to begin with.

So no, you don’t HAVE to live through a tank year. Although it would certainly accelerate the process (like the Dolphins in 2018).
Thank you for the explanation. Anyway, I think that a couple of humble losing seasons is good to clear the table and gain felxibility in the long run. Otherwise, when the team is rebuilt and competitive again, maybe you can’t retain the drafted players you payed so little on their first contract. As an example, wasn’t this the situation we were in with Williams? (Honest question, I’m not sure about that).
In that instance it was justified by the Brees’ window closing and we signed a lot of good FAs. In absence of a Brees, is it justified as a persistent strategy?
 
Thank you for the explanation. Anyway, I think that a couple of humble losing seasons is good to clear the table and gain felxibility in the long run. Otherwise, when the team is rebuilt and competitive again, maybe you can’t retain the drafted players you payed so little on their first contract. As an example, wasn’t this the situation we were in with Williams? (Honest question, I’m not sure about that).
In that instance it was justified by the Brees’ window closing and we signed a lot of good FAs. In absence of a Brees, is it justified as a persistent strategy?
All fair questions.

For whatever reason, DA didn’t value MW as much as the league did. We COULD have made space, but they felt like letting him walk and getting a little more flexibility back there a little cheaper was the better option (personally, I would’ve kept MW).

Remember, we were still in the mix for Deshaun Watson when that decision was made. So it wasn’t a case of letting him walk bc Brees was gone. We were still going for it.

The issues with the “take your medicine for a couple losing seasons” are:

1. Some teams take years to recover from that sort of thing. It’s not just a win-loss thing. It’s a culture thing.

2. You don’t really have to do that just to reset the cap. The easiest way is to draft a good QB. Alternatively, you can just slowly massage it back towards the middle, like we were on track to do before Carr.
 
To be reasonably assured of drafting a franchise QB you need to pick in the top 10 or better. So you have to have a really bad season prior to the draft. Do we really want to take that path?
 
All fair questions.

For whatever reason, DA didn’t value MW as much as the league did. We COULD have made space, but they felt like letting him walk and getting a little more flexibility back there a little cheaper was the better option (personally, I would’ve kept MW).

Remember, we were still in the mix for Deshaun Watson when that decision was made. So it wasn’t a case of letting him walk bc Brees was gone. We were still going for it.

The issues with the “take your medicine for a couple losing seasons” are:

1. Some teams take years to recover from that sort of thing. It’s not just a win-loss thing. It’s a culture thing.

2. You don’t really have to do that just to reset the cap. The easiest way is to draft a good QB. Alternatively, you can just slowly massage it back towards the middle, like we were on track to do before Carr.
Thank you, I didn’t really know about the MW decision reasoning.

1. Absolutely, culture is a huge thing and the Saints know it all too well after that 2014-16 slump

2. This is the most important reason (or the only one at this point of the convo) to even consider tanking or rather “fixing” the team value. As a fan, I do not consider tanking as an option but at the same time also understand that 9-8 to 7-10 seasons don’t do any good for drafting a good QB
 
I hope we target more DEs around the size of Carl Granderson (6’5/260). More effort and quickness than plugging tired lighter Defensive Tackle bodies at DE.




I'm not opposed to having a lighter pass rusher as part of the rotation. We could use a pass rushing 3-tech, we won't be able to find one in FA and chances of getting one in the draft at the end of the first round are slim. On pass rushing downs we could kick in Jordan, Turner or Kpass and have a lighter DE take their spot.
 

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