Saints restructure Ramczyk to vet minimum per Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap (6 Viewers)

[Elvis]

This isn't some brilliant move by Loomis. It's the same thing we've done every year since like 2020: Kick the can.

We now owe $12 million of dead cap in 2026 for Ram, furthering putting us behind the eight ball on any possible rebuild. To be fair, we didn't have a choice at this point, but that's part of the problem. We never should have been put in this position.

In Rams case it was tough. He had a big contract and the medical thing popped up. There are far more egregious contracts with dead money hits than his. I mean, Juwan Johnson and Chase Young will be $15.5 million in dead money alone this year if not re-signed which would be on top of the $48.4 million for Lattimore, Jameis and MT in dead money coming in 2025.

 

[BoNcHiE]

In Rams case it was tough. He had a big contract and the medical thing popped up. There are far more egregious contracts with dead money hits than his. I mean, Juwan Johnson and Chase Young will be $15.5 million in dead money alone this year if not re-signed which would be on top of the $48.4 million for Lattimore, Jameis and MT in dead money coming in 2025.

We knew he had a degenerative knee condition before we signed him to that deal. The structures of these deals, constantly using void years, is also a major issue.

At some point, Loomis is responsible for all these bad decisions and their outcomes, even if he had good intentions.

 

[St. Geezy]

This is the key takeaway from this season. Cap flexibility limited the depth on the team, particularly at offensive line, wide receiver, and defensive line.

In a perfect world with little to no injuries, we have a pretty good team. When we have to extend aging players on large contracts to get under the cap each year, it limits what we can do with free agents if we don't kill it with draft picks.

Beyond hiring a new head coach, fixing the cap should be our top priority. "Kick the can" without a superstar franchise QB is not a path to success.

I would say our cap flexibility wasn’t necessarily compromised last year, but rather we made an organizational decision not to go full-throttle. We certainly had the capacity to do more, but determined the value of doing so was no longer present for this iteration of the team and figured this was the best time to scale things back to a certain mean level.

 

[MikeyF]

This isn't some brilliant move by Loomis. It's the same thing we've done every year since like 2020: Kick the can.

We now owe $12 million of dead cap in 2026 for Ram, furthering putting us behind the eight ball on any possible rebuild. To be fair, we didn't have a choice at this point, but that's part of the problem. We never should have been put in this position.

There isn't a team in the NFL that would not have made the same deal/contract with Ramz.
He was entering the prime of his career as a multi pro bowl player...

This is not a good example of Loomis's "kick the can" cap management.
.....................

Ryan Ramczyk thanks for being the player almost no one expected!
Thank You for being a Great Saint!

 

[44slayer]

There isn't a team in the NFL that would not have made the same deal/contract with Ramz.
He was entering the prime of his career as a multi pro bowl player...

This is not a good example of Loomis's "kick the can" cap management.
.....................

Ryan Ramczyk thanks for being the player almost no one expected!
Thank You for being a Great Saint!

Are you sure about that? He had a KNOWN degenerative knee. This is how we operate though. We hope players with injuries get past them, or that they can be fixed. This is part of why we are where we are. No cap, no space. Bargains on the oft injured, or hoping the injured can get past them. Its an extraordinarily weak roster from age to injuries to depth. Its all a result of Loomis' decisions.

The off ramp from cap hell, is going to take 2 more seasons. IF Loomis decides to put the blinker on. We have to make tough decisions that arent going to result in wins in 2025. This has to be a multi year plan. But we have to make the choice, and stick to it.

 

[MikeyF]

We knew he had a degenerative knee condition before we signed him to that deal. The strhttps://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/21773/ryan-ramczykuctures of these deals, constantly using void years, is also a major issue.

At some point, Loomis is responsible for all these bad decisions and their outcomes, even if he had good intentions.

We did not know in 2021 he had a degenerative knee condition!

 

[Rouxble]

There isn't a team in the NFL that would not have made the same deal/contract with Ramz.
He was entering the prime of his career as a multi pro bowl player...

This is not a good example of Loomis's "kick the can" cap management.
.....................

Ryan Ramczyk thanks for being the player almost no one expected!
Thank You for being a Great Saint!

If we could have avoided restructuring Ram's contract with a cleaner cap, in theory we could have released him last year with a total cap charge of $14.1m in 2024 with no future charges on the books. He would have received his $6.5m in injury-guaranteed salary and could have signed a one-day contract at a later date to officially retire.

Because of the restructuring each year, the cap hits are instead the below:

2024: $12.3m
2025: $11.1m
2026: $12.0m

That's $35.4m in cap charges spread over three years for someone who hasn't played since 2023 instead of $14.1m in one year to rip the bandaid off. Ram’s contract was actually just about perfect in term and dollars paid, but the restructuring is what has us still paying for it long after he played his last down.

 

[St. Widge]

I still believe that is one of the bigger misconceptions about the Saints' strategy, the heavy use of future cap space didn't really start until 2021. From 2011-2020, we averaged about 8% of total cash being spent on restructuring bonuses. From 2021-2024, the average has been about 37% of cash spent. We've been more all-in post-Brees than we ever were with Brees.

That's fair.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that is at least in part a result of the COVID year and getting the to the point where the roster had too many older expensive players and there was more or less no choice but to restructure essentially all the salaries to signing bonuses to use future dollars to get cap compliant. I also think it was the only way to get the QB DA thought would be the final piece in Carr (or Watson).

At the same point, although the percentage was still likely high, last year it looked like they did the minimal number of restructures they could do to get cap compliant and spent little in free agency. So, it does appear that the plan is to get cap compliant by the end of 2026.

 

[MikeyF]

If we could have avoided restructuring Ram's contract with a cleaner cap, in theory we could have released him last year with a total cap charge of $14.1m in 2024 with no future charges on the books. He would have received his $6.5m in injury-guaranteed salary and could have signed a one-day contract at a later date to officially retire.

Because of the restructuring each year, the cap hits are instead the below:

2024: $12.3m
2025: $11.1m
2026: $12.0m

That's $35.4m in cap charges spread over three years for someone who hasn't played since 2023 instead of $14.1m in one year to rip the bandaid off. Ram’s contract was actually just about perfect in term and dollars paid, but the restructuring is what has us still paying for it long after he played his last down.

but not one single person thought Ramz career would end in its prime in 2024...
It started out as just a simple "clean up" procedure.

 

[St. Geezy]

If we could have avoided restructuring Ram's contract with a cleaner cap, in theory we could have released him last year with a total cap charge of $14.1m in 2024 with no future charges on the books. He would have received his $6.5m in injury-guaranteed salary and could have signed a one-day contract at a later date to officially retire.

Because of the restructuring each year, the cap hits are instead the below:

2024: $12.3m
2025: $11.1m
2026: $12.0m

That's $35.4m in cap charges spread over three years for someone who hasn't played since 2023 instead of $14.1m in one year to rip the bandaid off. Ram’s contract was actually just about perfect in term and dollars paid, but the restructuring is what has us still paying for it long after he played his last down.

So we paid for a player we all wanted to keep while not having current money by using future money, the same option is available today.

It’s annoying to look at on the books, but more emphasis needs to be placed on the 5 year cap outlook and what’s always there and available to pull from on a constant rolling and replenishment basis, and as a bonus, you’re allowed to be over the limit in future years.

Looking at it as single years will drive you insane.

 

[SaintRob]

I would say our cap flexibility wasn’t necessarily compromised last year, but rather we made an organizational decision not to go full-throttle. We certainly had the capacity to do more, but determined the value of doing so was no longer present for this iteration of the team and figured this was the best time to scale things back to a certain mean level.

I think this is the problem in a nutshell. Without prior cap hinderance, we wouldn't have been in the position to have to make that decision. It worked while Brees was here and kept us in "win-now, make the playoffs" mode. Once he retired and Payton stepped down, that should have been the impetus to make a change to cap strategy, but we went with "DA, status-quo, keep kicking" with most fans/sports pundits correctly predicting failure and our current situation. Now we're still top heavy, still have aging players on large contracts, have been ok, but not exceptional in drafting, and started a semi cap transition that still keeps us in a "low flexibility, float bad contract" mode. We need to make tough decisions and completely cut the cord.

 

[Dome50]

If we could have avoided restructuring Ram's contract with a cleaner cap, in theory we could have released him last year with a total cap charge of $14.1m in 2024 with no future charges on the books. He would have received his $6.5m in injury-guaranteed salary and could have signed a one-day contract at a later date to officially retire.

Because of the restructuring each year, the cap hits are instead the below:

2024: $12.3m
2025: $11.1m
2026: $12.0m

That's $35.4m in cap charges spread over three years for someone who hasn't played since 2023 instead of $14.1m in one year to rip the bandaid off. Ram’s contract was actually just about perfect in term and dollars paid, but the restructuring is what has us still paying for it long after he played his last down.

So this was a bad decision, no? But Loomis was "forced" to restructure Ram due to the messy cap situation the team was already in, a situation of his creation. Basically, I'm done letting Loomis off the hook (not that anyone here is doing that). I'm no cap expert but I feel like Loomis has not taken enough heat for his cap negligence. Would love for some ex-GM cap expert to do a story about the current Saints cap situation (by far the worst in the league) and contract decisions of the last few years because as it stands, it is hard for me, a cap novice, to understand just how bad things have been.

 

[St. Geezy]

I think this is the problem in a nutshell. Without prior cap hinderance, we wouldn't have been in the position to have to make that decision. It worked while Brees was here and kept us in "win-now, make the playoffs" mode. Once he retired and Payton stepped down, that should have been the impetus to make a change to cap strategy, but we went with "DA, status-quo, keep kicking" with most fans/sports pundits correctly predicting failure and our current situation. Now we're still top heavy, still have aging players on large contracts, have been ok, but not exceptional in drafting, and started a semi cap transition that still keeps us in a "low flexibility, float bad contract" mode. We need to make tough decisions and completely cut the cord.

We drafted poorly, signed the wrong people, and asked the wrong person to coach them, all while watching most of the good players we actually got get hurt. I blame that much more than an accounting ledger management style.

 

[Rexman100]

If we could have avoided restructuring Ram's contract with a cleaner cap, in theory we could have released him last year with a total cap charge of $14.1m in 2024 with no future charges on the books. He would have received his $6.5m in injury-guaranteed salary and could have signed a one-day contract at a later date to officially retire.

Because of the restructuring each year, the cap hits are instead the below:

2024: $12.3m
2025: $11.1m
2026: $12.0m

That's $35.4m in cap charges spread over three years for someone who hasn't played since 2023 instead of $14.1m in one year to rip the bandaid off. Ram’s contract was actually just about perfect in term and dollars paid, but the restructuring is what has us still paying for it long after he played his last down.

ok let me get this straight are you saying, when we restructure, we end up paying a sort of interest on top? 14.1 vs 12+12+11 (34.5) Diff of 21.3M extra?

 

[Rouxble]

but not one single person thought Ramz career would end in its prime in 2024...
It started out as just a simple "clean up" procedure.

The point is more about the cap dollars, and most teams don't kick the can down the road to the extent that we do because no one can be sure when a player will lose ability due to age/injury/etc. If we hadn't kicked the can down the road, he would be off the books already with the same amount of money paid to him.

I'll again say that I think the contract was just about perfect in hindsight in terms of length and dollars, because his last guarantees ran out last year.

So we paid for a player we all wanted to keep while not having current money by using future money, the same option is available today.

It’s annoying to look at on the books, but more emphasis needs to be placed on the 5 year cap outlook and what’s always there and available to pull from on a constant rolling and replenishment basis, and as a bonus, you’re allowed to be over the limit in future years.

Looking at it as single years will drive you insane.

I get that we have rolling dollars and a five year outlook, as do all teams, but we limit our ability to move on when it's time because the dead money forces our hand to an extent. Carr's contract is the perfect example--without a restructure, we could cut him today and only be on the hook for a $27.1m cap hit, instead it is a $50.1m cap hit due to restructuring. We go from being able to save $30m with an immediate cut to only saving $1.4m because of the dead money his restructure created.

That limits our ability to simply say, let's move on and give Rattler the reins, because we need to restructure multiple contracts to create space that otherwise wouldn't be needed.