New Orleans Saints in total fire sale mode

[PatriotReign]

Trade for Lewis and Browner. Then the defense will be back in business.

 

[eom]

Don't kid yourself. They had to cut just to get under the March 10 cap. They still have to sign draft picks, fill the roster. Go from 51 to 53. And put $5+ million aside for in-season injuries.

And, sure, they can go back to the Brees credit card again, if they think that the risk of a $33 million dead money hit on a 36 year old QB isn't high enough. Why not go to $40 million, right? I mean, they could just not field a team for a year or two if he tears a rotator cuff in training camp....

what am I kidding myself about?

how is their cutting players to get under the cap any different than any other team?
how is it different than us trading away mankins, or not picking up options on wilfork and browner?

they were in such 'cap hell' they just signed spiller for more money than ingram, and it was widely speculated they wouldn't be able to afford re-signing ingram.
draft picks are probably like 2m --- yeah, they're tight, but so what?

 

[hwc]

You can look into the Saints cap situation for yourself. I don't really care if you believe me or not...

You might check out Pat Kirwin's show on Sirius NFL Radio (weekdays 3 - 7 pm Eastern). He's been going into the Saints situation in detail for several weeks as he reviews the cap situation of all 32 teams. He ran the cap for the Jets for several years and has done cap consulting projects for Belichick. Knowledgeable guy in that arena. Saints are currently in the most dire situation of any NFL team and a situation that will take a couple years (and blowing up the team) to get out of.

 

[supafly]

The Saints play in a weak enough division that they can reasonably re-build in some areas on the fly, while still being favored by some/many for the postseason slot that comes with winning the division.

They've brought in CJ Spiller and retained Mark Ingram on 2 higher priced RB deals, they've brought in Brandon Browner, and they've obtained and restructured Ellerbe--a decent coverage LB. On top of that, they've also come to an agreement with Keenan Lewis to keep him, making up a halfway decent secondary.

Are they making some changes? Sure...They aren't in the best cap position, which has forced them to address certain contracts while stock piling higher round draft picks. They've also brought in or retained 5 higher profile players that don't exactly suggest "fire sale" on any level.

As we saw with teams like Pittsburgh and Dallas lately, these "cap hell" situations can be improved upon rather quickly, with the understanding that you're likely going to lose a very talented player or two (Jimmy Graham). Are they built for the bigger picture like N.England is? Of course not, but that doesn't make them any different than the majority of teams.

 

[hwc]

The new contracts are going straight on the credit card.

Browner counts $1.1 million on this year's cap, but has $7.75 million guaranteed against the cap over the next three years.

Same with Ingram. $1 million cap hit this year, $7.6 million guaranteed over the next four years.

Doing new back loaded credit card deals after cutting old credit card deals and taking dead money hits is the only way they can get under the cap. They took a $20 million dead money cap hit by getting rid of Graham, Grubbs,and Lofton. Those aren't moves you WANT to make. You only take those kinds of dead money hits when you have run out of options.

They'll be OK next year when they cut Drew Brees. They can't cut him now, because it would be a $33 million dead money hit, so they eat his $26 million cap charge (back loaded credit card bills have come due).

 

[VectorPrime]

Jeez I didn't realize Brees was 36 years old.

 

[hwc]

The Jason Fitzgerald Q&A on the Pats cap management has a similarly detailed response to a question about the Saints Cap. I won't link to a Peter King article on general principle, but you can find the link on the thread about the Pats cap.

 

[meatface]

Mickey Loomis right now: