There's no easy way out of this (9 Viewers)

[SweetT]

If there was a year to bite the bullet, cut some guys, and get the cap under control, it was last offseason. 2025 is not looking good for doing anything but kicking the can. $81 million over the cap and there are very few obvious cuts.

Lattimore actually costs you money to trade. Cutting Kamara saves you $18 million, but Cam Jordan costs you $3 million to cut. Carr only saves you $1.5 million to cut. Ramcyzck gets you $6 million (so that's a no-brainer). You save about $4 million total by cutting J.T. Gray and Khaulen Sanders.

In the end, we are stuck having to restructure a bunch of contracts of older players just to get under the cap, and that means we can't even really do a full rebuild like we need to. There will still be a lot of veteran players on this squad, some not really producing anything.

Can we get under the cap? Sure, but it's going to take until 2028 to really get this cap situation right, and that's assuming we even try.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us overpaying for old players who may or may not start while having to rely heavily on draft picks. If we don't knock it out of the park in the 2025 draft, we are going to be in the dumps for a while. We HAVE to start getting more draft picks now to even make it a possibility. Everyone should be in consideration to be traded before the deadline.

The big question is what coach is going to be willing to come here to take this project on.

Hot take here:
Hire someone from the Dan Campbell coaching tree. Sure it is in its infant stage right now, but it has that old school football mentality, with the new school approach, and is built for the current age of play. If the Lions team can be rebuilt, then so can ours

 

[Snakehead]

To me as a non-Saints fan I'm fascinated that there are Saints fans here who (paraphrasing) "The Saint's cap management isn't an issue because the cap always goes up."

When in reality it actually there are multiple issues with that.
- Aging roster.
- Lack of depth.
- Roster issues when drafting fails.
- Contracts that are difficult jettison.

And to cap it all off, if this were some sort of "cap manipulation hack" then why don't all other 31 teams do it if it were so advantageous?

Where is this aging roster? At the beginning of the season we had the 16th oldest roster. There are a few players making the overall age higher, DD, Cam, Taysom, Carr and Mathieu.

ML has been using this cap management hack for years it's why other teams have started doingthe same thing with void years. Now there are teams that have a completely different philosophy, but ML did what it took to keep the team competitive during the last years of Brees. The problem with that is it takes a significant reset to undo it and we haven't did that yet.

 

[Snakehead]

Hot take here:
Hire someone from the Dan Campbell coaching tree. Sure it is in its infant stage right now, but it has that old school football mentality, with the new school approach, and is built for the current age of play. If the Lions team can be rebuilt, then so can ours

Fact. I also like what Houston did. They built the line, skill players, defense, then went and got a QB on a rookie deal. They'll use the cap to their advantage since guys like Collins will get paid before Stroud, but when Stroud comes due, the cap will be higher.

 

[St.Fury]

Ram will likely retire after this season. I’m convinced we’re only carrying him on IR right now to save a few bucks this current season.

 

[St4ever]

Our next HC (hopefully an offensive minded coach) is going to need time to ride this out over the next few years….so his leash should be pretty long.

Focus on rebuilding the lines this draft and off season and then looking for our franchise QB in the ‘26 draft.

It’s not going to be pretty, but at least a plan like that gives us all some much needed hope.

Most likely their going to ride this out with Dennis Allen!

 

[Snakehead]

Ram will likely retire after this season. I’m convinced we’re only carrying him on IR right now to save a few bucks this current season.

Agreed. His degenerative knees are gonna all of the sudden heal.

 

[St4ever]

We just need to suck for Manning! Yes two years worth of suck. But in year one of sucking we can draft high linemen and get ready for the QB

 

[HoustonSaint68]

If there was a year to bite the bullet, cut some guys, and get the cap under control, it was last offseason. 2025 is not looking good for doing anything but kicking the can. $81 million over the cap and there are very few obvious cuts.

Lattimore actually costs you money to trade. Cutting Kamara saves you $18 million, but Cam Jordan costs you $3 million to cut. Carr only saves you $1.5 million to cut. Ramcyzck gets you $6 million (so that's a no-brainer). You save about $4 million total by cutting J.T. Gray and Khaulen Sanders.

In the end, we are stuck having to restructure a bunch of contracts of older players just to get under the cap, and that means we can't even really do a full rebuild like we need to. There will still be a lot of veteran players on this squad, some not really producing anything.

Can we get under the cap? Sure, but it's going to take until 2028 to really get this cap situation right, and that's assuming we even try.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us overpaying for old players who may or may not start while having to rely heavily on draft picks. If we don't knock it out of the park in the 2025 draft, we are going to be in the dumps for a while. We HAVE to start getting more draft picks now to even make it a possibility. Everyone should be in consideration to be traded before the deadline.

The big question is what coach is going to be willing to come here to take this project on.

Love your post. While most of us (me included) want a full clean house/fire sale, that all sounds good until you actually look at the numbers. It truly is eye-opening and very sad to see the shape of this organization.

Our next HC (hopefully an offensive minded coach) is going to need time to ride this out over the next few years….so his leash should be pretty long.

Focus on rebuilding the lines this draft and off season and then looking for our franchise QB in the ‘26 draft.

It’s not going to be pretty, but at least a plan like that gives us all some much needed hope.

Every day, we should simply delete every new thread and post regarding "what we need to do" and simply re-post the three posts copied above, and everyone should just re-read them every day.

These posts cover everything that needs to be covered.

Loomis isn't going anywhere. Lauscha isn't going anywhere. Gayle Benson isn't selling the team. Annual salary cap increases, cuts and trades aren't going to get us out of this mess in one year.

Read the three posts above today. Wake up tomorrow and read them again. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Mojomajik9]

As others have said, the big issue is we must improve our scouting and drafting. Going back to Payton’s final years we’ve just whiffed on too many picks. To make matters worse, they use picks (future picks) to draft a bust or under performing talent.

I did listen to Underhill on Twitter this morning and he pointed out it’s the middle of the roster, the depth, that has sunk this season. That’s due to repeated bad drafts.

We can continue to get the cap under control and field a competitive team at the same time if we improve the draft. Looks like we’ll get a high pick…maybe top 10 or 5. We’ll probably make some trades to accumulate more. They must hit on these. One great draft can revitalize a team just like it did in 06 and in 17.

As for DA I do think it’s time to move on. My preference would be to just start fresh and move away from the Payton tree. Get new ideas. Build a strong culture again. No coaching retreads.

 

[dvdman]

Underhill was saying the same thing this morning about the cap. When it comes to about the next head coach, they definitely gotta find someone who can coach/ put players in the right position to succeed. We are not gonna have good depth until we have better drafting and cap space.

It’s very simple, have the right HC, QB & stay healthy. So we know the last one definitely is one of our common problems and the other two are iffy.

 

[SaintJ]

Every day, we should simply delete every new thread and post regarding "what we need to do" and simply re-post the three posts copied above, and everyone should just re-read them every day.

These posts cover everything that needs to be covered.

Loomis isn't going anywhere. Lauscha isn't going anywhere. Gayle Benson isn't selling the team. Annual salary cap increases, cuts and trades aren't going to get us out of this mess in one year.

Read the three posts above today. Wake up tomorrow and read them again. Rinse and repeat.

I think that "rinse and repeat" was only to sell more shampoo -- seems like my hair was always clean after one good round.

 

[lilvipa221]

I keep hearing the line repeated about us being stuck with a bunch of older players we’d have to restructure, but could you tell me, aside from Cam Jordan, who are the players you think the team would like to cut but can’t?

I don’t think we’d be looking to move on from Carr, Demario, or Tyrann even in a perfect world, so who are these guys that we are stuck with?

It’s almost as if the theme of the board lately is a fan-wish to see us tear it down and getting frustrated that we aren’t in position to, but I don’t necessarily think the team desires to tear it all down in the fashion people describe, and they are stressing themselves out because they’re are frustrated about not being able to do it.

Maybe I’m wrong though.

I’d also add that we aren’t the only team stuck with contracts it doesn’t want.

And sure, yes, we are $81m over for 2025 (which can be wiped out with like 5 or so moves, but look at the space available to pull from the 1-3 years after that. If we need money for a big name free agent or two, we can create it as always. It’s not like we were ever huge free agency spenders anyway.

I’m just not seeing the cause for concern I am hearing other than there being a desire from some to see us cut everyone, but the reality is, the team isn’t trying to cut everyone.

Don’t mean to sound condescending if I do; I am just genuinely wondering who all are you guys trying to get rid of or think the team is trying to get rid of.

Ummmm because we are 18-23 by continually doing this method of business. What is the difference between being 2-15 and possibly being in line to draft a generational talent at QB who can transform the franchise and continually being mediocre at best but still missing the playoffs? That is the only way to acquire someone like that. And honestly if we just have one bad year, a rookie QB and a bunch of young, hungry players like Denver is doing might be better than the team we currently have with Carr.

Us as fans don't have to just accept that the front office would rather settle for a range of 5-9 wins with the ceiling being maybe needing 5 teams to lose at the end of the year for us to sneak into the playoffs as a 7th seed.

This team will never be a contender thinking that Tyrann, Demario and Carr are good enough to lead this team to the playoffs. The defense has been the worst in the league with a relatively healthy team. The leaders of the past are done.

And we can voice our frustration and that is our right by not buying tickets and leaving an empty dome or a dome full of opposing fans, that might be the only way for them to get our attention.

 

[HoustonSaint68]

I think that "rinse and repeat" was only to sell more shampoo -- seems like my hair was always clean after one good round.

i suppose you're right.

Maybe you should just keep doing what you're doing.

 

[lilvipa221]

Where is this aging roster? At the beginning of the season we had the 16th oldest roster. There are a few players making the overall age higher, DD, Cam, Taysom, Carr and Mathieu.

ML has been using this cap management hack for years it's why other teams have started doingthe same thing with void years. Now there are teams that have a completely different philosophy, but ML did what it took to keep the team competitive during the last years of Brees. The problem with that is it takes a significant reset to undo it and we haven't did that yet.

The overall roster age is skewed because of the amount of undrafted free agents/rookies we had to have at the bottom of the roster just to fill spots but we have one of the oldest starting lineups in the NFL (healthy). We are reliant on older players for success.

 

[St. Widge]

Hot take here:
Hire someone from the Dan Campbell coaching tree. Sure it is in its infant stage right now, but it has that old school football mentality, with the new school approach, and is built for the current age of play. If the Lions team can be rebuilt, then so can ours

I think you may get your wish. But maybe not the guy you want. Looking at how this organization operates, my guess is that Aaron Glenn might be the next head coach. He was in the running last time, he has connections to the organization, he is from both the Campbell and Payton line, and he seems like he would be a player coach and a good motivator. I'm not sure he's a great defensive mind, but he's showing this year if he has talent to work with he can do a good job.

Plus, I know everyone wants the next hot young OC to be HC, but those guys are going to be harder to get as Ben Johnson showed last year. It seems likely it would be easier to get a better coach by getting a defensive guy that is less in demand by other teams. Then you hope he goes out and finds the next hot assistant to name OC.

Glenn wouldn't be my preference, but I don't think he would be a bad choice.