Saints still have $37 Million in 2026 Cap Space next year (12 Viewers)

[BoNcHiE]

Ross Jackson covered it on his show this morning. He thinks when it all is said and done is that he thinks they will be somewhere close to even. Give or take on either side of the cap.

Heck of a lot better than -$80 million. Puts us more in line with normal NFL teams with the ability to make moves.

 

[BreesusSaves]

This is why moving Lattimore last season was so brilliant. It accelerated when he'd be off the books by a full year in addition to moving him before the rest of the league figured out he was washed.

2024 and 2025 are about taking the medicine. 2026 will be a bit tight but much better than a long time, and 2027 the Saints if they feel the need can sign anyone they want.

 

[texasjefe]

That won't matter because they have enough space to sign anyone they want. If we cut Carr post 6/1 next year that # jumps up 50MM.

It would be awesome if they could be unbridled in signing free agents a year from now.

However, the biggest benefit of Carr's cap space freeing up on June 1, 2026 is that they will be positioned to carry alot of rollover cap space to 2027, and then they are really clean and free. That's why I point to 2027 as the year of a healthy cap.

 

[St. Widge]

Ross Jackson covered it on his show this morning. He thinks when it all is said and done is that he thinks they will be somewhere close to even. Give or take on either side of the cap.

Even or a little bit below to keep flexibility to cut players and trade/trade for players should really be the goal. At least as long as you are spending all that money on good players which means we need to draft better to have guys that deserve that money.

 

[texasjefe]

This is why moving Lattimore last season was so brilliant. It accelerated when he'd be off the books by a full year in addition to moving him before the rest of the league figured out he was washed.

2024 and 2025 are about taking the medicine. 2026 will be a bit tight but much better than a long time, and 2027 the Saints if they feel the need can sign anyone they want.

I would less characterize trading Lattimore as brilliant, but moreso a sign that they recognized their toxic spending addiction and started to deal with it.

The super part that Loomis did in trading Latt was getting more draft picks, and giving new assets to this new staff and their expected improvement for us in talent-eval and player dev.

 

[SAINTSFAN]

And most of the players we’d sign to fill out the roster won’t impact the top 51.

Next?

Really? Of the 31 that are actually signed and represented in that number, 7-8 are futures deals who likely will not even make the roster. So, that cap number represents 24 players and does not yet include the 2nd year hit for Young (and any other FA signings). It will still be a bit tight next year, but hopefully not nearly as bad as this year.

 

[SAINTSFAN]

It would be awesome if they could be unbridled in signing free agents a year from now.

However, the biggest benefit of Carr's cap space freeing up on June 1, 2026 is that they will be positioned to carry alot of rollover cap space to 2027, and then they are really clean and free. That's why I point to 2027 as the year of a healthy cap.

Yeah, I think 2027 is a more accurate target for some adequate breathing room.

 

[kcirdor]

Helps clear the cap when there are no superstars to resign

Or do like the seahawks and eagles and let people walk instead of signing up for a bunch of void years.. we will look back at 2020 to 2024 as The Void Years.

 

[Clintonrebel]

Even with all the contract restructures, we are set not to be in the red next year for the first time in a long time (Over the Cap). While it'll likely go down a bit if we make some more moves, we have $37 million in cap space in 2026 (before the yearly cap increase).

Yes, we'll have to fill out some roster spots that will require spending money, but for the first time in a long time we will have real flexibility.

All the press doom and gloom about "salary cap hell" is basically already over. We've made it through.

Agree. The only down side is that when it is said and done, we will likely be one of the oldest teams in the league. But on the flip side, we are MUCH closer to being able to deal with that.

 

[Chuck McGill Esq.]

Or do like the seahawks and eagles and let people walk instead of signing up for a bunch of void years.. we will look back at 2020 to 2024 as The Void Years.

At least we will be able to look back at that as a thing of the past....Hopefully.

 

[Mr. Coach Klein]

Or do like the seahawks and eagles and let people walk instead of signing up for a bunch of void years.. we will look back at 2020 to 2024 as The Void Years.

Eagles are pushing cap and void years as much as possible to keep their window open.

The smartest way to run the cap is like we did under Brees during 2017-2020 years or like Eagles do now. That is, once the SB window is open, push numbers forward as much as possible to sign talent. When the window isn't open, clean up cap. We should've started this after Brees. It's happening now.

We were 80MM over*. We couldn't really let people walk. If we don't restructure Carr then we have to add void years and restructure almost everyone on the roster.

Like Bonchie said, after this year we're basically in the clear. Hopefully, we find a QB in the next few years and can load up the cap again (assuming we have a SB window open).