Saints Cap Moves: $28,318,521 cap space ….. 8 restructures, 3 extensions, 3 pay cut, 1 release [All current cap moves are in OP]

[soggymoss84]

If Carr wanted out, he could have forced it really easily and done things to make it work under the Saints cap. It's not like Carr cares about bad press. If he did, he would stop acting like Derek Carr.

True, but he knew the Raiders were going to cut him so he would be a free agent. So anything he did would be to the Raiders advantage and not his. Here he knew that the Saints were not going to cut him due to the cap hit and Moore wanting him to stay. But, there could have been some advantages to him if he could get another team to give him a longer term contract with more or the same money. Geno Smith is reportedly about to get $40 or $45 million per year from the Raiders. That probably boosted what he would take to stay with the Saints or what he would have needed to see in a contract with another team before he would do things to make a cut or trade feasible.

So, if he really wanted out, he would have had to demand a trade and likely restructure to make it work under the cap. But, he did neither of those. I suspect the truth of it was that he would have considered a trade if the Saints proposed one and he wanted to have permission to gage what kind of contract he would get, but was also unwilling to change his contract to make a trade or cut feasible for the Saints. So, I'm sure he was interested in other options, but he wasn't so interested that he was willing to do things to make a cut or a trade happen.

I also suspect that in the end Carr realized that no team was going to be willing to pay him what the Saints were paying him and since the Saints were not going to cut him, he would hold his ground. It's all about the money for Carr, as it should be, so it's not so much that he wants to be here, it's that he likes the contract he has here and isn't going to change it.

Yeah if Carr truly wanted out he could have helped Saints cap so he could get cut and still make ten million dollars, just by simply going to Loomis and saying “I want yall to cut me, to make it easier on you to eat the cal hit and designate me a June 1 cut I would be willing to lower my 2025 salary to league minimum if you’d be willing to take off the offset clause in my 10 million roster bonus”

Loomis would have had to take that deal IMO

 

[texasjefe]

I tend to take people at their word when they speak, and Moore has heaped nothing but praise towards the guy, and we are moving forward with him.

Or, Kellen knew from the interviews and his agent that there was good probability that Carr was going to be restructured. It would have been a tough choice to eat the dead cap in this season. So, Kellen is immediately doing his job, coaching up a player who will need a lot of ego-stroking to turn the page.

 

[St. Geezy]

Or, Kellen knew from the interviews and his agent that there was good probability that Carr was going to be restructured. It would have been a tough choice to eat the dead cap in this season. So, Kellen is immediately doing his job, coaching up a player who will need a lot of ego-stroking to turn the page.

Tell yourself whatever you have to tell yourself to hold onto the hope that you were right all along, even if that includes believing our new head coach is being manipulated and is lying.

All I know is that if the team had decided to go against my own wishes and moved on from Carr, I wouldn’t be on here complaining about it all day every day like some.

Learn to cope and move forward with ways we can fix the team based on the framework that’s being laid out.

This is entertainment…watch it, follow it, critique it if you must, but don’t act like you know what’s best and scream it to the ceiling every time the team’s philosophy doesn’t flow with how you and all your GM and coaching experience would build a team. We aren’t GMs and complaining endlessly isn’t going to change anything.

What’s the point of being a fan if you’re just going to be mad at every single thing the team does at this point? You know we aren’t going forward with the vision you and others had, so find a way to cope.

Just my advice.

 

[oodank]

Gotta love how everyone just automatically projects their own thoughts on Carr into the mind of Kellen Moore. It’s like completely illogical for some people to fathom that the idea that the guy is being genuine about his feelings for the guy.

That's because they are still trying to project their own personal feelings on a resolved situation, and they are not paying attention to what is actually happening.

 

[texasjefe]

Tell yourself whatever you have to tell yourself to hold onto the hope that you were right all along, even if that includes believing our new head coach is being manipulated and is lying.

All I know is that if the team had decided to go against my own wishes and moved on from Carr, I wouldn’t be on here complaining about it all day every day like some.

Learn to cope and move forward with ways we can fix the team based on the framework that’s being laid out.

This is entertainment…watch it, follow it, critique it if you must, but don’t act like you know what’s best and scream it to the ceiling every time the team’s philosophy doesn’t flow with how you and all your GM and coaching experience would build a team. We aren’t GMs and complaining endlessly isn’t going to change anything.

What’s the point of being a fan if you’re just going to be mad at every single thing the team does at this point? You know we aren’t going forward with the vision you and others had, so find a way to cope.

Just my advice.

Come off the ledge, skippy. I'm free to speculate.

 

[Dastheat_9]

We are going to pay 50 million dollars to players not on the team, and they are going to end up paying Derek Carr 150 Million Dollars. This is just insane to me for a team with no pro-bowlers. Why didn’t we just wash it all. Start from scratch next year with these draft picks.

 

[St. Geezy]

Come off the ledge, skippy. I'm free to speculate.

If by speculate you mean “Create bizarre counter-narratives that go against what’s directly in front of me to support what I want to believe,” sure, go ahead.

 

[texasjefe]

If by speculate you mean “Create bizarre counter-narratives that go against what’s directly in front of me to support what I want to believe,” sure, go ahead.

You believe the decisions are 100% football, 100% on the level, and little to no business motivation.

I believe ..

IT'S BUSINESS SZN. Coaches lie for the good of the team and player, because a shirt-ton of money and lost time hangs in the balance..

Remember, Nick the trick said vaguely.. "they tried to do something different with Carr." What would that be? Either a paycut, an extension, a trade, or a cut.

 

[St. Geezy]

You believe the decisions are 100% football, 100% on the level, and little to no business motivation.

I believe ..

IT'S BUSINESS SZN. Coaches lie for the good of the team and player, because a shirt-ton of money and lost time hangs in the balance..

Remember, Nick the trick said vaguely.. "they tried to do something different with Carr." What would that be? Either a paycut, an extension, or a cut.

It was also reported that Carr wanted to shop his services but the team would not let him because they really are dead set on him being the guy at QB, but I guess we’ll just ignore that one and pretend it’s fake since it doesn’t flow with the desired narrative.

 

[texasjefe]

It was also reported that Carr wanted to shop his services but the team would not let him because they really are dead set on him being the guy at QB, but I guess we’ll just ignore that one and pretend it’s fake since it doesn’t flow with the desired narrative.

Reported by who?

 

[St. Geezy]

Reported by who?

Katherine Terrell and Jeremy Fowler

 

[texasjefe]

I'll go look that up.

Also, If they traded Carr, they would have had to eat the full dead cap in 2025, which they did not want to do and why they restructured him. What team would send the Saints a pick for him? If the Saints wanted to move him, teams could wait out his release.

 

[Clintonrebel]

Seems like the rest of the league is signing vets beyond their prime to mega deals. Hope the pendulum swings our way in the next few years.

 

[texasjefe]

It was also reported that Carr wanted to shop his services but the team would not let him because they really are dead set on him being the guy at QB, but I guess we’ll just ignore that one and pretend it’s fake since it doesn’t flow with the desired narrative.

Is this the article?

Katherine Terrell Mar 8, 2025, 06:46 PM ET NEW ORLEANS -- The Saints are restructuring Derek Carr's contract to open up $30.9 million in 2025 cap space, according to a source on Saturday.

The Saints plan to convert Carr's $30 million base salary and $10 million guaranteed roster bonus to a signing bonus, pushing money to future years and lowering his 2025 cap figure to $20.4 million. Carr's base salary was set to become fully guaranteed Friday.

Restructuring Carr's contract ties the quarterback to the Saints for at least the 2025 season and increases Carr's 2026 cap figure to $69.2 million in the final season of his contract. That means the Saints will likely face questions about his contract again next year.

​

Restructuring Carr's contract affirms what Saints general manager Mickey Loomis and Saints coach Kellen Moore said at the NFL scouting combine in February. Loomis told reporters then that the Saints planned to stick with Carr for a third season but needed to address his $51.4 million cap hit due to the team's strained salary cap situation.

"Yeah, it's tight," Loomis spoke of the salary cap in February. "There's no secret to that, and his is a big number, so we're going to hopefully be able to maneuver."

Sticking with Carr didn't appear to be a certainty when the Saints initially hired Moore, who sounded noncommittal on Carr's future in his opening news conference before affirming his commitment a few weeks later at the NFL combine.

Several NFL sources believe that Carr was open to testing the market in recent weeks, possibly filling a void with a quarterback-needy team before free agency, but the Saints showed no outward desire to trade or cut him. Multiple teams in the quarterback market were made aware of this in recent weeks, the sources said. Carr told ESPN in January that he wouldn't take a pay cut.

...

Carr has two seasons remaining on the four-year deal he signed in 2023 and is set to void on the last day of the 2026 league year.

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler contributed to this report.

They could not have shopped him (or let him "test the market") unless they wanted to eat the full dead cap. So unless I'm missing something, that's a meaningless statement. Maybe "test the market" thing came from Carr's camp. He could've tested every market, it just meant that the Saints would have jumped their 2025 Dead Cap to $90M, and that's before they've made decisions on Ruiz, Hill, Ramcyz, others.

Business szn.