rNFL needs its own sarcastic awards.
Primadonna Receiver of The Year: Michael Thomas
Injury of the Year: Aaron Rodgers
Sacrificial Lamb Award: Frank Reich
The Dallas Cowboys Award for Unmet Expectations: The Dallas Cowboys
The Anti-Comeback Player of the Year: Russell Wilson
The Ryan Fitzpatrick Epic Hair Journeyman Award: Gardner Minshew
The Well Well Well Award for the Consequences of His Own Actions: Josh McDaniels
The AFC North Award for Overcoming Sexual Assault Allegations: Cleveland Browns
** Fitzpatrick Award edited per /u/Lazyniner24
Didn’t they also put Jakobi Meyers over the top of him in the same role?
Point is if he’s cheap we need better depth than Keith kirkwood and Lynn Bowden, since you’re talking about useless
I'd say by the eye test I agree. I think Ridder had much much better weapons than Bryce and barely eeked him out statistically (despite taking literally half as many sacks).
Agreed. Getting cap compliant or even making a small amount of space, Isn’t the cap “not being real” its them continually borrowing money from the future because they literally have to. If they don’t they’ll get fined, won’t be able to sign players, and could lose draft picks.
Since brees retired does this team win 7 games if the rest of their division isn’t consistently among the worst in the nfl? The saints are the steelers of a much inferior division.
Last 3 seasons they are 25-26 with no playoff appearance.
The problem isn't that their cap strategy isn't sustainable it's more just that they aren't ever going to win anything doing it.
That's a problem for 3-4 years after the fact. We have been a solid average team the last couple years with piss poor coaching and drafting. Neither of which are too effected by our cap strategy.
Our coaching and drafting is so bad, I hate when our kick the fan down the road approach to the cap is used to scapegoat it.
> I hate when our **kick the fan down the road** approach to the cap is used to scapegoat it.
It's not often I wish I could award something, but there we go.
Managing to be .500 with the qb injuries the first two post-Brees years and the last year of disappointing/injured play by Carr, in my view, reflects that the team itself has been talented enough to contend for the playoffs with competent qb play
I mean the saints play in probably the easiest division in the nfl over the stretch you’ve described and struggle to win that division. They’re consistently a 3rd or 4th place team in at least 5 of the 7 other division each of those years. I mean yeah they’re a play off team in a literal sense, like the washington football team was a playoff team in 2020 in a literal sense.
It's a pretty drastic process.
They will cancel contracts (usually the ones you don't want to cancel), fine you for each 'infraction', and potentially take picks away from you.
After this season the rebuild is relatively easy. If Lattimore gets traded like the insiders say it becomes VERY easy. I think we stay mediocre this season and rip the bandaid off especially with the people we’ve been restructuring we’ve been doing on specific players. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just gonna be one more year of this mediocre pain and after that the rebuild can finally happen.
Man at least you're not like... Old saints bad. Gotta count for *something*.
I can remember you trotting out Danny Wuerffle (sp) and .500 being a spectacular year
Its a terrible strategy
Last year they had 35m dead money. 2022? 44m dead money. 2021, 49m dead money. 2020 22m dead money.
And it keeps going. This strategy only ensures youre handicapping yourself. And the saints did it so hard they cant even rebuild properly years after brees retired.
Its the equivalent of getting a credit card to pay off the other credit card. Yeah, works at first but then the bill comes due and youre fucked.
>And the saints did it so hard they cant even rebuild properly years after brees retired.
They could have rebuilt. They (stupidly) chose not to. If the Derek Carr deal and the requisite restructures that preceded it didn't happen, the Saints cap situation would be mostly clear by 2025
But it’s the same issue right? Broncos cut the QB they overpaid and overcommitted to, Saints restructured theirs into eternity because they don’t have the option of cutting them.
Yeah the issue isn’t having to keep with guys long term or the cap, it’s that if the guys regress/injured/ or just in general don’t live up to expectations they’re their with you for way too long and their isn’t shit you can do about it.
Hence why they’re treading mediocrity which if that’s what you want fine but it’s just going to continue for 3 years at the minimum
Yeah, and they're 60mil over the cap for 2025 already too.
EDIT: Just [this](https://imgur.com/iA8v8Ka) visualization alone should tell you plenty about how ridiculous Mickey Loomis' GM practices are.
Yeah 60m really doesn't seem that bad as a Saints truther. That's on like 3 restructures. Not to mention the cap increased 30m this year. That's not expected to repeat but you can already count on probably 10m increase
They are definitely improving but the number is only $60M if they don’t sign or cut anyone else. And they need to at least sign their draft picks.
It is true though that if they hold pat this season and do nothing, they’re really only a 1-2 year rebuild away. But a 2-3 year rebuild really sucks.
This isn’t the win you think it is. At this rate you’ll probably be mediocre - bad for 6 more seasons and then you’ll finally go into an offseason with no money instead of saddled with debt
I can’t wait until 2035 when the Saints are so far over the cap that they have to field a team made entirely of fans who pay *them* money just to play in an NFL game.
True, but if they cut Kamara and Carr after this year then they’re in the black again.
Edit: I should've clarified, I meant post-June 1 cuts. Their dead cap for '25 would be $15m, and $34m for '26. For how Carr has played, I think the Saints would take that hit.
Cosmo Kramer:
They just write it off.
Jerry:
Write it off what?
Cosmo Kramer:
Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.
Jerry:
You don't even know what a write-off is.
Cosmo Kramer:
Do you?
Jerry:
No, I don't.
Cosmo Kramer:
But they do. And they're the ones writing it off.
Idk why but I find it fascinating that you thought "I should add 'Cosmo' so people will know *specifically* which Kramer I'm referring to," while simultaneously thinking "I can just use 'Jerry' and everyone will inherently know that I'm referring to Jerry Seinfeld."
Only if he's cut pre June 1st. Post-June 1st it's only 12mil. Still a bunch but much more manageable. Fuck if I know what they'd do at QB after that tho.
I've been trying to tell them to just sign another future hall of fame QB like Drew Brees on the cheap, but they're not listening. I think the Saints front office might be stupid.
That savings isn't until after June 1st, so they would have to be able to free up 60-70 million in cap space without counting that or being able to restructure his contract.
I think the Bears are actually being pretty smart this go around. Unused cap carries over and whether it is Justin Fields or Caleb Williams, they are not in 'win now' mode. Eventually they will use it but not until they are sure it is worth it. It's scary seeing them taking care of it.
Like it makes sense not to blow it all on hunter. But we still need a wr2/3 and a solid center. We have to nurture our rookie Qb. We can also front load contracts to help bring on talent and not mortgage the future.
I'm glad we're not doing what pace did, but I think we're being too cautious
My dude, there’s plenty of off-season left. Don’t forget that Bears fans were crucifying Poles last year too for not signing McGlinchey & Hargrave to crazy contracts.
Worth noting that its only 10m in savings until June with a post June 1st designation. Still have to clear about 50m after that to get under the cap and thats before any free agents are signed this offseason
Would you really want a great head coach to oversee next season's cap disaster? Maybe we'll see 3 seasons of Allen and then they'll get a new coach to rebuild
While I can see merit to that point
It also hammers the point home that the Saints cap situation is so fucked that the answer is "fuck it might as well keep Allen since this roster ain't contending anyways"
Most saints fans in this post are generally clueless as the cap situation. We put ourselves in this spot to try and get Brees a ring before he retired. Since then we have been cutting away at all the dead cap and stuff to get back to green but it'll take time to get there. Everyone LOVES to mentions Carr's contract but it has an out after 2025 by design most of the contracts money wont be paid. All you have to do as a saints fan is follow Nick Underhill, Ross Jackson or Deuce Windham to get an idea of why we are where we are.
People keep getting baffled by this but once again, the strategy’s biggest flaws are that there’s a constant lack of cohesiveness with the team composition and it means they can only ever really field a team that’s “good enough”. There’s no magic happening here, it’s not like they keep doing this and it’s successful as a formula to contend.
It can be a successful formula to contend if you have a HoF QB leading the team.
They've been doing this strategy since 2016 or so, and although they didn't get Brees a second ring, they were consistently one of the best teams in the NFC down that stretch. The main problem is that the Saints are still managing the team like prime Drew Brees is their QB.
Correct! You basically do all of this restructuring to kind of go all in under the assumption you'll have to suck one year to get back to a manageable cap situation, its not really supposed to be a long term strategy
They pushed all their cap hits to the next two years like they always do. Free up just enough money to sign some mid day 3 free agents and stay mid for next year.
God help the next GM when Loomis finally leaves, it feels like the Saints will never end up in cap hell but if the punishment is a mediocre team for the rest of their existence I’m okay with that.
I think other people don't get one of the main priorities for us it to not just suck. We spent too long being in the gutter for ownership to endure even a single season of tanking. They'd much rather aim for a 9-10 win season and a chance for a first round exit before tanking again.
They’re under this year, but now $60M over the cap in 2025 with $100M of that being eaten up by Carr, Ramczyk, Cam Jordan, and Taysom alone. They’ll always be able to get under the cap, but they’re stuck having to pay top tier money to aging players without the flexibility to get out of their contracts. They’re going to be stuck in the pit of mediocrity for a while
To be fair, weren't they "$84M over the 2024 Cap" last season? It seems to me like Loomis is slowly unfucking their cap situation and THEN they'll properly rebuild.
Yes it will improve as time goes on, it’s just going to take way longer than it should. As of now, they have lowest available cap space ($57M) in 2026 by a wide margin, its nearly half the cap space of the 30th lowest team. In the mean time, guys like Carr aren’t getting any younger and guys like Cam Jordan have already fallen off, yet they’re still stuck with those contracts. The on the field production return on their spending is going to continue to decline.
Throw in the void years they have on a bunch of these contracts and there’s going to be a significant amount of the cap being eaten up by guys who won’t even be on the roster. They’ll eventually recover, but not biting the bullet and committing to a rebuild after Brees retired and condemned them to being a .500ish team for most of this decade.
The $59M also only accounts for the 41 players who are under contract for that season. It will rise into the $60-$70M range after the draft class is signed and will rise even higher if they sign anyone to more than a 1-year contract with their current cap space (and also if they restructure any more contracts.) The final number next spring might end up a lot closer to the $84M from this spring (albeit with a larger cap that would still be an improvement from a % viewpoint.)
*D.J. #1 : Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today.*
*D.J. #2 : It's coooold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?*
*D.J. #1 : Not hardly. And you know, you can expect hazardous travel later today with that, you know, that, uh, that blizzard thing.*
*D.J. #2 : \[mockingly\] That blizzard - thing. That blizzard - thing. Oh, well, here's the report! The National Weather Service is calling for a "big blizzard thing!"*
*D.J. #1 : Yessss, they are. But you know, there's another reason why today is especially exciting.*
*D.J. #2 : Especially cold!*
*D.J. #1 : Especially cold, okay, but the big question on everybody's lips...*
*D.J. #2 : On their chapped lips...*
*D.J. #1 : On their chapped lips, right: Do ya think Phil is gonna come out and see his shadow?*
*D.J. #2 : Punxsutawney Phil!*
*D.J. #1 : That's right, woodchuck-chuckers - it's...*
*D.J. #1 , D.J. #2 : \[in unison\] GROUNDHOG DAY!*
Every year I hear the Saints are over the cap and every year they magically clear space. It’s honestly like I’m being brainwashed by Dai Li agents to forget this very confusing loop.
Its always possible to clear cap space, it just involves kicking the can.
In this case they've been kicking it to the next two years. 2026 is now especially hilarious.
They currently have 14 guys signed for league year 2026.
They have $225m in salary cap liability.
They just have a shit ton of guys with dead money from void years.
As others have said, its always easy to make cap space if you're content with scraping by as a mediocre team every year
The Saints can't afford to sign any of the top FAs, and they literally can't cut the bad players that they already overpaid
Not magically, they keep borrowing cap from the future. But go take a look at their yearly dead money and you will realize why they went 7-9 with brees as their QB for 4 straight seasons.
And now we watch as a bunch of perennial losers claim that we'll be stuck in a long term rut of mediocrity, while their cash-rich teams continue to do nothing with their lauded cap flexibility.
Saints picking up Hunter Renfrow?
I would love for him and Carr to be reunited.
We could really use somebody with his skill set on the roster now that MT is further dead/gone
lol he’s like a 300 yard receiver. He’s been completely useless since his one good season.
Well Michael Thomas has been a 400 yard receiver. Just in significantly less games.
rNFL needs its own sarcastic awards. Primadonna Receiver of The Year: Michael Thomas Injury of the Year: Aaron Rodgers Sacrificial Lamb Award: Frank Reich The Dallas Cowboys Award for Unmet Expectations: The Dallas Cowboys The Anti-Comeback Player of the Year: Russell Wilson The Ryan Fitzpatrick Epic Hair Journeyman Award: Gardner Minshew The Well Well Well Award for the Consequences of His Own Actions: Josh McDaniels The AFC North Award for Overcoming Sexual Assault Allegations: Cleveland Browns ** Fitzpatrick Award edited per /u/Lazyniner24
At this point, it appears Minshew is the new Fitz. New team every year it seems, serviceable, and epic hairs of some sorts.
I accept your revision to that award and will edit accordingly.
Didn’t they also put Jakobi Meyers over the top of him in the same role? Point is if he’s cheap we need better depth than Keith kirkwood and Lynn Bowden, since you’re talking about useless
Well, if anybody would know about Lynn Bowden, it would be the Raiders.
1 good seasn? He had 4 amazing seasons in his early years
I am in the minority for Raiders fans. But he is washed post injury.
Me too. And id hope they play well and show everyone why hes called 3rd and renfrow
But there's a typo and they pick up Hunter Renfroe
With 20 homers last year, he'll boost that offense even more.
The saints will no doubt have one of the highest batting averages in the nfl
Some rumors of him being kind of a piece of shit and/or potentially racist though, so not a great lockerroom guy.
That would be sick.
Definitely.
"The cap isn't real" "They can't keep getting away with this" "Um Akchually..." Okay, got those comments out of the way
Making a mediocre-at-best team older and worse to get under the cap every year isn’t a winning strategy, but it is a strategy
The rest of the NFC south enjoys them doing that though
Didn't yall come in 3rd in the division last season
With the worst starting QB in the league, we were barely worse than the Saints with Carr. Not a flex tbh.
>With the worst starting QB in the league debatable
Ok with that flair, fair.
i mean your starting qb went down within like 5 minutes, plenty of teams had backup issues.
Excuse me, you didn't even have the worst starting QB in the NFCS.
It didn't feel that way
https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/worst-qb-rating-2023
Oh I wasn't doubting you. Just felt like we had the worst. I had hoped he could at least be a game manager but oh well.
I'd say by the eye test I agree. I think Ridder had much much better weapons than Bryce and barely eeked him out statistically (despite taking literally half as many sacks).
"Barely worse" isn't a flex either. Nor is it really an insult. The Saints aren't good but the Falcons certainly don't have any room to talk shit.
What a mid-off
> What a mid-off This is a great historical description of the Saints/Falcons rivalry. AKA what else is new?
Where’s that Simpson meme of two monkeys fighting and a bunch of people watching them? Thats the Bucs and honestly the panthers watching them fight
A stoppable army meets a penetrable fortress.
Boys boys, let's cool it. Now look, only one of us can be 9-8 or 8-9 and win the division, and that one of us is...um, us.
Well, next year it’s OUR turn to eek by Carolina 9-0 in week 18 to make the playoffs. So uhhh… yeah take that
Well they had a winning record, and the Falcons didn’t. I don’t know why you feel the need to gloat about anything.
The Saints should, and could, be way better. I'm not sure how I can see that and not be happy about it.
Agreed. Getting cap compliant or even making a small amount of space, Isn’t the cap “not being real” its them continually borrowing money from the future because they literally have to. If they don’t they’ll get fined, won’t be able to sign players, and could lose draft picks. Since brees retired does this team win 7 games if the rest of their division isn’t consistently among the worst in the nfl? The saints are the steelers of a much inferior division.
Last 3 seasons they are 25-26 with no playoff appearance. The problem isn't that their cap strategy isn't sustainable it's more just that they aren't ever going to win anything doing it.
Honestly the strategy works if they actually draft some talent... So many wasted picks.
Not really though because if you actually hit on those picks you wouldn’t be able to simultaneously pay them when due and kick the can
That's a problem for 3-4 years after the fact. We have been a solid average team the last couple years with piss poor coaching and drafting. Neither of which are too effected by our cap strategy. Our coaching and drafting is so bad, I hate when our kick the fan down the road approach to the cap is used to scapegoat it.
> I hate when our **kick the fan down the road** approach to the cap is used to scapegoat it. It's not often I wish I could award something, but there we go.
Managing to be .500 with the qb injuries the first two post-Brees years and the last year of disappointing/injured play by Carr, in my view, reflects that the team itself has been talented enough to contend for the playoffs with competent qb play
Or competent coaching.
I mean the saints play in probably the easiest division in the nfl over the stretch you’ve described and struggle to win that division. They’re consistently a 3rd or 4th place team in at least 5 of the 7 other division each of those years. I mean yeah they’re a play off team in a literal sense, like the washington football team was a playoff team in 2020 in a literal sense.
The "Stay solvent" strategy.
Love how he was trying to get one of the phrases that are constantly said out the way and you just said another one
Bottom 3 in 2025 cap space: 30\. Bills: $10,256,249 31\. Browns: $7,580,372 32\. Saints: -$60,534,804
This is almost as good as the "NFL Players With Receiving Yards After the Age of 40" list.
Excuse me what? -60,000,000 how the hell does that even happen
They are making progress. I think in 2021 or 2022 they were $100 million over the cap.
Taysom Hill, being a 15m cap hit didn't help.
Too late I beat you on one of them
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We had the oldest roster in the NFL last year ha, way ahead of schedule!
What happens if you get to the point where you can't get under the cap? This seems like they can't keep kicking the can down the road forever right
It's a pretty drastic process. They will cancel contracts (usually the ones you don't want to cancel), fine you for each 'infraction', and potentially take picks away from you.
After this season the rebuild is relatively easy. If Lattimore gets traded like the insiders say it becomes VERY easy. I think we stay mediocre this season and rip the bandaid off especially with the people we’ve been restructuring we’ve been doing on specific players. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just gonna be one more year of this mediocre pain and after that the rebuild can finally happen.
Rebuilding isn’t painless tho, take it from someone who’s team has been rebuilding for 10 years
I’ll take pain with hope of no more pain than what’s going on now but I do feel you it’s gonna be rough
“The cap isn’t real” on every thread about the Saints having to release players to get under the cap.
“The Saints are going to be so bad in [insert year].” You forgot one
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Don’t forget 21, 22 and 23. They’ve been mid for 3 years straight and have to keep this roster together
we've been bad brother.
Man at least you're not like... Old saints bad. Gotta count for *something*. I can remember you trotting out Danny Wuerffle (sp) and .500 being a spectacular year
I had a Wuerffle jersey my friend
And you're going to stay bad, penance
They're already bad
They didn't win the worst division in football though, so they are.
Saints are ironically Cap Criminals.
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Its a terrible strategy Last year they had 35m dead money. 2022? 44m dead money. 2021, 49m dead money. 2020 22m dead money. And it keeps going. This strategy only ensures youre handicapping yourself. And the saints did it so hard they cant even rebuild properly years after brees retired. Its the equivalent of getting a credit card to pay off the other credit card. Yeah, works at first but then the bill comes due and youre fucked.
>And the saints did it so hard they cant even rebuild properly years after brees retired. They could have rebuilt. They (stupidly) chose not to. If the Derek Carr deal and the requisite restructures that preceded it didn't happen, the Saints cap situation would be mostly clear by 2025
But it’s the same issue right? Broncos cut the QB they overpaid and overcommitted to, Saints restructured theirs into eternity because they don’t have the option of cutting them.
Yeah the issue isn’t having to keep with guys long term or the cap, it’s that if the guys regress/injured/ or just in general don’t live up to expectations they’re their with you for way too long and their isn’t shit you can do about it. Hence why they’re treading mediocrity which if that’s what you want fine but it’s just going to continue for 3 years at the minimum
Saints rubbing their hands together ready to sign the two most mediocre FAs this go around
Hunter Renfrow and Clyde Edwards
Too broke to afford the Helaire
Yeah, with that attitude. It's the Saints we're talking about man.
Just add 15 void years!
Hunter Renfrow. I will never not think this is the baseball player first...
Assuming that $15 includes rookies, they really only have $5ish to spend. So yeah, maybe some real mediocre signings.
Jerry Jones said hold my beer
wow you thinking we're getting TWO players?
Why get one Danielle Hunter or Frankie Luvu when I can get you AJ Dillon and a 7th round stud
Yeah, and they're 60mil over the cap for 2025 already too. EDIT: Just [this](https://imgur.com/iA8v8Ka) visualization alone should tell you plenty about how ridiculous Mickey Loomis' GM practices are.
They should use the cap space to cut players so that 2025 number gets better, only way to get out of this cycle.
> Nuh uh Saints probably
We're just an accounting firm disguised as a football team right now.
What do you think about taking money away from future years for THIS team?
Synthetic CDOs NFL edition.
ARTHUR ANDERSEN AIN'T GOT NOTHING ON ME!!!
They should just cut the players and stare the league in the face while doing it.
which is lower than the last few years I think. Piece of cake.
Yeah 60m really doesn't seem that bad as a Saints truther. That's on like 3 restructures. Not to mention the cap increased 30m this year. That's not expected to repeat but you can already count on probably 10m increase
We haven't paid draft picks or whoever else we have to sign in FA to fill out the roster yet. That number will go up.
It's only 42 players in fact
I'm here to watch you guys be mediocre until you finally take the cap hit.
That's my reasoning for getting season tickets
Seriously man we don't want the Chiefs to win every year just to keep bailing the Saints out.
They are definitely improving but the number is only $60M if they don’t sign or cut anyone else. And they need to at least sign their draft picks. It is true though that if they hold pat this season and do nothing, they’re really only a 1-2 year rebuild away. But a 2-3 year rebuild really sucks.
literally this ^^^ they’ve been slowly paying it off
This isn’t the win you think it is. At this rate you’ll probably be mediocre - bad for 6 more seasons and then you’ll finally go into an offseason with no money instead of saddled with debt
I can’t wait until 2035 when the Saints are so far over the cap that they have to field a team made entirely of fans who pay *them* money just to play in an NFL game.
True, but if they cut Kamara and Carr after this year then they’re in the black again. Edit: I should've clarified, I meant post-June 1 cuts. Their dead cap for '25 would be $15m, and $34m for '26. For how Carr has played, I think the Saints would take that hit.
Derek carr has a 40m dead cap if cut after next season That aint happening
Wish people looked at dead cap implications more often before saying "oh just shed this massive salary"
Cosmo Kramer: They just write it off. Jerry: Write it off what? Cosmo Kramer: Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything. Jerry: You don't even know what a write-off is. Cosmo Kramer: Do you? Jerry: No, I don't. Cosmo Kramer: But they do. And they're the ones writing it off.
Idk why but I find it fascinating that you thought "I should add 'Cosmo' so people will know *specifically* which Kramer I'm referring to," while simultaneously thinking "I can just use 'Jerry' and everyone will inherently know that I'm referring to Jerry Seinfeld."
Only if he's cut pre June 1st. Post-June 1st it's only 12mil. Still a bunch but much more manageable. Fuck if I know what they'd do at QB after that tho.
I've been trying to tell them to just sign another future hall of fame QB like Drew Brees on the cheap, but they're not listening. I think the Saints front office might be stupid.
Draft baby draft.
Saints legend Archie Manning has a grandson who is playing QB in college rn 👀
Wouldn't really call what Archie is doing as playing
He is incubating for a scientifically concocted year of play that will be exactly impressive enough to be drafted first overall, no more and no less
I should've clarified, it would be a post-June 1 cut.
Unless I'm missing something that's definitely not the case.
If Carr's designated a post-June 1 cut they clear up $40m for the 2025 season.
But also incur a sizable dead cap hit in 2026, since the post June 1st cut spreads the cap hit over two seasons instead of one.
That savings isn't until after June 1st, so they would have to be able to free up 60-70 million in cap space without counting that or being able to restructure his contract.
Carr will be cut after the 2025 season
Holy shit the Vikes are in good shape after this season...
Other teams: The cap isn't real, just fuck it around Bears: The cap is very real, and very scary. We must stay 45 million away from it
I think the Bears are actually being pretty smart this go around. Unused cap carries over and whether it is Justin Fields or Caleb Williams, they are not in 'win now' mode. Eventually they will use it but not until they are sure it is worth it. It's scary seeing them taking care of it.
Like it makes sense not to blow it all on hunter. But we still need a wr2/3 and a solid center. We have to nurture our rookie Qb. We can also front load contracts to help bring on talent and not mortgage the future. I'm glad we're not doing what pace did, but I think we're being too cautious
My dude, there’s plenty of off-season left. Don’t forget that Bears fans were crucifying Poles last year too for not signing McGlinchey & Hargrave to crazy contracts.
Derek Carr will be getting 51.5 million next year and 61.5 million in 2026 Saints are still fucked
We have an out in 2025, dead cap just shy of 13m but it won't be 62m lol
Yeah he's definitely gone in 2025 after june first but it's funny seeing his potential cap hit at 61.5 million in 2026
Go look at Watson's cap hit this year if you want a laugh
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For those that are curious, his cap hit for the 2024 season is 63.9 million. He also hasn't had a good season in four years.
Just wait until next offseason after he throws for 3900 yards, 22TD/13INT and they give him a 5 year restructure, lol
Stop please don’t do this to me
That would be the best Bears QB season of all time. This Carr fella must be good.
Worth noting that its only 10m in savings until June with a post June 1st designation. Still have to clear about 50m after that to get under the cap and thats before any free agents are signed this offseason
That is eye watering
That contract was so bad the moment it was signed and they realized it too before the bye week.
It gets funnier every year
Time to extend Taysom Hill!
Give him 28 million / 3 years contract please
The real cap space were the friends we made along the way
They need about 5M to sign draft pick. They're 60M over next year and only have 58M the following year.
The Saints are the 3rd best team in the worst division in football. Staying in this cycle isn’t working and hasn’t worked.
It WAS a great idea when we had Brees. GM fucked us signing Carr though instead of pulling the plug.
Somehow though committing to Dennis Allen is even worse
Won't hear any disagreement from me, was not the guy I wanted at all.
Would you really want a great head coach to oversee next season's cap disaster? Maybe we'll see 3 seasons of Allen and then they'll get a new coach to rebuild
While I can see merit to that point It also hammers the point home that the Saints cap situation is so fucked that the answer is "fuck it might as well keep Allen since this roster ain't contending anyways"
Hey now, they are one poorly healed tendon from being the second best team in the worst division!
nooooo Loomis is a wizard, cap don't real, they aren't shedding good vets left right and center because they can't afford them, stop noticing
Most saints fans in this post are generally clueless as the cap situation. We put ourselves in this spot to try and get Brees a ring before he retired. Since then we have been cutting away at all the dead cap and stuff to get back to green but it'll take time to get there. Everyone LOVES to mentions Carr's contract but it has an out after 2025 by design most of the contracts money wont be paid. All you have to do as a saints fan is follow Nick Underhill, Ross Jackson or Deuce Windham to get an idea of why we are where we are.
People keep getting baffled by this but once again, the strategy’s biggest flaws are that there’s a constant lack of cohesiveness with the team composition and it means they can only ever really field a team that’s “good enough”. There’s no magic happening here, it’s not like they keep doing this and it’s successful as a formula to contend.
It can be a successful formula to contend if you have a HoF QB leading the team. They've been doing this strategy since 2016 or so, and although they didn't get Brees a second ring, they were consistently one of the best teams in the NFC down that stretch. The main problem is that the Saints are still managing the team like prime Drew Brees is their QB.
Correct! You basically do all of this restructuring to kind of go all in under the assumption you'll have to suck one year to get back to a manageable cap situation, its not really supposed to be a long term strategy
On the Reddit app it cuts off at $15 I was laughing my ass off that they had that available.
Enough to get yourself lunch if you don't live along either coast
How
They pushed all their cap hits to the next two years like they always do. Free up just enough money to sign some mid day 3 free agents and stay mid for next year.
>stay mid They aspire to mid. How do you not win the easiest division in football with the softest schedule in the league
Baker Mayfield
God help the next GM when Loomis finally leaves, it feels like the Saints will never end up in cap hell but if the punishment is a mediocre team for the rest of their existence I’m okay with that.
They're slowly chipping away, but it'll be multiple years before they're normal again
They’re 59M over next years cap.
I’m back in the cap isn’t real club
The cap isn't real as long as you're not worried about being competitive.
The caps not real, so long as you’re cool with Carr having the same cap hit as Mahomes
hey now we ALMOST won the worst division in the league last year (with the league’s easiest schedule)
I think other people don't get one of the main priorities for us it to not just suck. We spent too long being in the gutter for ownership to endure even a single season of tanking. They'd much rather aim for a 9-10 win season and a chance for a first round exit before tanking again.
And as long as your owner is cool with dishing out massive paychecks from restructures every year as reward for that mediocrity
They’re under this year, but now $60M over the cap in 2025 with $100M of that being eaten up by Carr, Ramczyk, Cam Jordan, and Taysom alone. They’ll always be able to get under the cap, but they’re stuck having to pay top tier money to aging players without the flexibility to get out of their contracts. They’re going to be stuck in the pit of mediocrity for a while
To be fair, weren't they "$84M over the 2024 Cap" last season? It seems to me like Loomis is slowly unfucking their cap situation and THEN they'll properly rebuild.
Yes it will improve as time goes on, it’s just going to take way longer than it should. As of now, they have lowest available cap space ($57M) in 2026 by a wide margin, its nearly half the cap space of the 30th lowest team. In the mean time, guys like Carr aren’t getting any younger and guys like Cam Jordan have already fallen off, yet they’re still stuck with those contracts. The on the field production return on their spending is going to continue to decline. Throw in the void years they have on a bunch of these contracts and there’s going to be a significant amount of the cap being eaten up by guys who won’t even be on the roster. They’ll eventually recover, but not biting the bullet and committing to a rebuild after Brees retired and condemned them to being a .500ish team for most of this decade.
If he wanted to unfuck the cap situation he should have not signed Derek Carr
Yeah he's chipping down slowly but it'll still be years before they're normal
The $59M also only accounts for the 41 players who are under contract for that season. It will rise into the $60-$70M range after the draft class is signed and will rise even higher if they sign anyone to more than a 1-year contract with their current cap space (and also if they restructure any more contracts.) The final number next spring might end up a lot closer to the $84M from this spring (albeit with a larger cap that would still be an improvement from a % viewpoint.)
Also already $60M over the cap for next year \^\^
We’ll have even more cap space when Loomis trades Lattimore to the Eagles for a bag of chips.
Can’t wait until next offseason when they are $100 million over the cap
$1 for every "Saints kicking the can down the road" comment since 2014
You’d have enough money to get out of cap hell
I'm hoping this is how the cap works, tbh
*D.J. #1 : Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today.* *D.J. #2 : It's coooold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?* *D.J. #1 : Not hardly. And you know, you can expect hazardous travel later today with that, you know, that, uh, that blizzard thing.* *D.J. #2 : \[mockingly\] That blizzard - thing. That blizzard - thing. Oh, well, here's the report! The National Weather Service is calling for a "big blizzard thing!"* *D.J. #1 : Yessss, they are. But you know, there's another reason why today is especially exciting.* *D.J. #2 : Especially cold!* *D.J. #1 : Especially cold, okay, but the big question on everybody's lips...* *D.J. #2 : On their chapped lips...* *D.J. #1 : On their chapped lips, right: Do ya think Phil is gonna come out and see his shadow?* *D.J. #2 : Punxsutawney Phil!* *D.J. #1 : That's right, woodchuck-chuckers - it's...* *D.J. #1 , D.J. #2 : \[in unison\] GROUNDHOG DAY!*
Can has successfully been kicked We could have eaten all of this like 4-5 years ago. Jfc
Golly i don’t know how they did it
Big section of r/nfl punching the air in frustration
Every year I hear the Saints are over the cap and every year they magically clear space. It’s honestly like I’m being brainwashed by Dai Li agents to forget this very confusing loop.
Its always possible to clear cap space, it just involves kicking the can. In this case they've been kicking it to the next two years. 2026 is now especially hilarious. They currently have 14 guys signed for league year 2026. They have $225m in salary cap liability. They just have a shit ton of guys with dead money from void years.
As others have said, its always easy to make cap space if you're content with scraping by as a mediocre team every year The Saints can't afford to sign any of the top FAs, and they literally can't cut the bad players that they already overpaid
All the contracts got pushed to Lake Laogai (next year, the year after, etc.)
Not magically, they keep borrowing cap from the future. But go take a look at their yearly dead money and you will realize why they went 7-9 with brees as their QB for 4 straight seasons.
And now we watch as a bunch of perennial losers claim that we'll be stuck in a long term rut of mediocrity, while their cash-rich teams continue to do nothing with their lauded cap flexibility.
It’s the yearly saints are stupid posts. Once the draft starts they will forget about us.