Salary cap not as bad as some think. According to ESPN. (1 Viewer)

[jarabie]

As of Friday, the Saints were about $13.5 million over the salary cap, but that was before linebacker Curtis Lofton restructured his contract. The Saints must be below the cap by March 12.

Lofton's cap figure was scheduled to be $7.1 million. But the Saints were able to drop that number to $3.1 million by replacing a scheduled $5 million roster bonus with a $5 million signing bonus that will be pro-rated over the remainder of the contract.

Information from ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas was used in this report.



According to this after Lofton restructured we were less than 10 million over. After the cuts today that would put us around 7 million over. Now if we cut/ restructure Smith, Vilma, Harper, and Hawthorne. That should put us well under the cap where we can make moves in free agency to fill holes before the draft. Plus sign atleast one or two quality free agents to improve our team. I am no cap expert, but I would believe ESPN's numbers over some peoples. So maybe the sky really is not falling!

MOD EDIT: Here are a couple of tidbits I found from Yasisnkas about our cap situation:

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcsouth/post/_/id/45221/saints-want-to-keep-vilma-smith

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcsouth/post/_/id/45296/saints-free-up-2-2-million-in-cap-space

 

[Domeination]

A link to Yasinkas's article would be helpful. I was never concerned about our cap situation. Loomis probably has dozens of options for getting us under the cap and even finding room for FA signings.

 

[Saints 4 life]

Work your magic, Loomis.

 

[jarabie]

Don't know how to post a link sorry. Article on ESPN.COM. It is in the write up about Saints look to restructure Smith and Vilma. I trust in the front office too. Just after seeing those numbers it should be easy to get under the cap. Some have said we were in cap hell, and that does not at all seem to be the case.

 

[cugr4life]

everywhere else i read have us being about 14 million over after our cuts and the restructure.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>With today's moves, the <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Saints">#Saints</a> are inching closer to getting into a good cap position. Now only $14.8 million over or so.</p>&mdash; WWL-TV Sports (@wwltvsports) <a href="https://twitter.com/wwltvsports/status/304024452348383232">February 20, 2013</a></blockquote>
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[Lurkaholic]

Cutting Roman Harper: 3.5 million.

Restructuring Roman Harper: 15 million.

 

[Rdanderson91]

everywhere else i read have us being about 14 million over after our cuts and the restructure.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>With today's moves, the <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Saints">#Saints</a> are inching closer to getting into a good cap position. Now only $14.8 million over or so.</p>&mdash; WWL-TV Sports (@wwltvsports) <a href="https://twitter.com/wwltvsports/status/304024452348383232">February 20, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Apparently this guy has a DeLorean

 

[cugr4life]

Apparently this guy has a DeLorean

hahaha i have no idea why it did that

 

[4thqtrsaint]

Just a reminder... Not only do we have to drop under the cap, we need to go well under. If you are right and we are around 7-8 mil over, getting under is not a big deal. Getting far enough under to resign our FAs and adding additional FAs is a big deal. I don't know if 20 mil under would do it, but if it did, that means we still need to shed 28 mil. Not cap hell, but certainly not cap heaven.

 

[Westbank4Life]

Working the cap now is completely different than in the 90's.

 

[nelopiceral1]

Something people forget is that we're going to need to sign our draft picks eventually. Granted, rookies are way cheaper that free agents, but still...it needs to be factored in.

 

[RockyMtnSaint]

I don't think Yasinkas has it right. The actual number is secret but the guys at spotrac keep up with it pretty closely and they have us at $136,736,818 right now. If the cap is $122 million then that lines up pretty well with WWL's tweet. Just to give you an idea of how on top of it spotrac is, I checked their site right after I heard that Thomas and Patrick were released and they had already updated our cap number.

 

[Dart]

Wait... You believe anything Saints-related on ESPN?

 

[jarabie]

I don't think we need 20 million under the cap to sign free agents unless we are looking to add Flacco to the roster. Lol. Smiths number is around 14.6 and Vilma is over 6. So I know there bonus money still counts but just these two could get us close to what we need. Harper and Hawthorne could give us plenty of wiggle room for free agents and our draft picks. As far as who's numbers are right, I don't have a clue no one really does apparently . But I know ESPN's name and for the most part they are usually pretty close.

 

[Saint by the Bay]

Jahri Evans is another potential renegotiation with over 7 million in salary this year. Some of that could be converted to bonus and he's a player you know will be around a while.