In the midst of this turmoil, sports can sometimes be difficult to read about when there are greater things at stake. Well, not when it’s about the Saints being stuck in a hard place and a rock next year! According to Spotrac, New Orleans’ current roster signed through 2021 is $99.9 million over the estimated league’s salary cap. Look, the Falcons salary cap situation next year is not sunshine and rainbows. It will be difficult to account for $32 million over the cap, but the Saints have it three times worse, and they may not even have a quarterback!
The loss of revenue from this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic is something that nobody could’ve seen. Except when it was already here? Sean Payton signed Taysom Hill to a ludicrous deal in April; I don’t care that he beat a few lousy teams. I know one of those is the Falcons, and I know April was just the start of the pandemic, but Payton prides himself on his superior intellect and then goes and does something silly like signing Hill and giving Alvin Kamara $75 million.
Yes, Kamara is a unicorn, and any team would die to have him. But as I have said before — literally NEVER give a running back a second contract. The deal is as back loaded as contracts get, as the Saints are known for doing. So his highest cap hits won’t come until a couple of years down the road, but they can’t get out from it until even further down the road.
The only cut the Saints would come unscathed from is Kwon Alexander, who they can move on from and save all $13 million he is due in 2021. But don’t get this article twisted; the Saints will more than likely be under the designated cap by the deadline. The NFL salary cap experts these teams have are wizards, and they can do special things. But it will be a difficult task for New Orleans to stay ultra-competitive while adhering to the cap.
On top of that, they don’t even have a quarterback. The feeling around New Orleans is Drew Brees is retiring after this season, which would make there cap situation a little more manageable ($65 million over the cap instead of $100 million), but then again, you now don’t have a Hall of Fame quarterback. I absolutely can’t wait to watch them try to squirm out of all these free-agent deals Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton thought would pay off with a Super Bowl. We can always laugh at this, and we can always laugh at the Saints choking in the playoffs — as I’m sure they will as early as this weekend.
You must log in to post a comment.