Saints Make All-In Moves; Eyes On Donovan Smith And Others
February 26th, 2022
Donovan Smith
New Orleans has no quarterback and a new head coach, but they aren’t changing course.
NFL insider Field Yates of ESPN reported this morning that the slimy Saints have completed major contract restructuring and saved $26 million in cap space for 2022. That’s no surprise, as the Saints remain tens of millions over the cap.
Cap manipulation is almost an annual tradition in New Orleans, where they have drafted rather well and built an A+ defense.
Obviously, it’s unclear what the Saints will do next but it doesn’t look like they’ll be taking a rebuilding posture. They manipulated the cap out of necessity, but management certainly could have opted to trade Thomas or Ramczyk rather than to keep kicking the salary cap can down the road.
The Bucs are not over the cap but they have a lot of expensive in-house free agents they want to sign.
Donovan Smith and Shaq Barrett are major candidates for contract restructuring similar to what the Saints did with Thomas and Raczyk. When you have a guy with a big contract and multiple years remaining, your accountants have room with which to maneuver.
Source: the Saints’ cap moves are underway, as they’ve converted $14.565M of Michael Thomas’ compensation for 2022 and $18,206,608 of OT Ryan Ramczyk’s compensation for 2022 into signing bonuses, creating $26.217M in cap space.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 26, 2022
February 26th, 2022 at 2:46 pm
Bucs can create enough cap to do whatever they want , but making a change just to make a change is sheer folly. PHUCK RUSSIA PHUCK PUTIN
February 26th, 2022 at 2:49 pm
The Saints are still $50 plus mil over the cap.
I wonder what will happen with A. Kamara? If he gets suspended by the NFL do the Saints still pay him the $14.5 million?
They would probably just owe him the prorated bonus portion which is $3 mil.
His roster bonus is $6 million… Does he still get this if he is suspended?
February 26th, 2022 at 2:49 pm
Durable Donnie deserves $30 million a year.
He’s that good.
February 26th, 2022 at 2:53 pm
Why do they even have a cap if it’s just circumvented by signing bonuses. Teams that have owners who are willing and have tons of liquidity have a huge advantage. They need to put a top percentage amount that teams can defer to bonuses.
February 26th, 2022 at 2:57 pm
D. Smith already has two “void” years on with $2.65 mil in each.
We could add money to those void years and deduct it from his salary of $15.75 million…
Adding $5 million to each void year would create $10 million of cap space.
We could also convert a void year into a contract year. I believe we did this with Mike Evans in the past.
February 26th, 2022 at 2:59 pm
Saints are screwed, blued & tattooed, not just this year but for several years to come. AFTER their moves noted in the article, Saints are still sitting at MINUS $49.9 mil salary CAP with 57 players signed. IOW, they’ll have to make a LOT more salary cuts before season starts. And cutting a few low cost players doesn’t git er done.
Have read several articles elsewhere recently that Dennis Allen really wants to keep Jameis in New Orleans. Smart move since right now all he’s got is overpaid Taysom Hill & Blake Bortles. And oh ya, Winston will cost the Saints $3 mil anyways (from last year) so signing him to a long-term contract could absorb that. Of course you could almost count Drew Brees as one of their quasi-QBs since he’s drawing $11.5 mil this season (retirement’s a beautiful thing).
And as far as the Saints having an A+ roster goes, that’s a double-edged sword for them. Their top players on defense are eating up their salary CAP & I’d bet that more than 1 will be told to hit the road. 2022 CAP Hits … Lattimore ($27.5 mil); Jordan ($21.4 mil); Onyemata ($13.2 mil); Jenkins ($11.7 mil); Davis ($11.0 mil); Roby ($10.2 mil); Davenport ($09.8 mil). That’s 7 players on defense alone making roughly $10 mil or more & eating up $104.8 mil in salary CAP. Something will have to give. If I had to guess, 1 very likely candidate to go would be CB Roby (almost no Dead CAP, while all the others would have huge Dead CAP hits). Hmmm, maybe Bucs could pick him up (about a $10 mil salary right now).
February 26th, 2022 at 3:01 pm
@ dooosh
Is it just a coincidence that D. Smith made huge improvements when TB12 showed up?
Quickest decision maker in the NFL – @ a 2 second average.
I like Smith but no way is he worth $30 million… I think at $18-$19 million he is being fairly compensated.
February 26th, 2022 at 3:31 pm
Only good players should be restructured
February 26th, 2022 at 3:35 pm
I agree with Marine Buc. Brady made this line, what it was, because he makes his reads fast, and gets rid of the ball fast as well.
February 26th, 2022 at 3:40 pm
Donnie 35m book it. Greatest of all time
February 26th, 2022 at 3:57 pm
Im not too big on commiting to D.Smith longterm. After his performance in that Rams game I can no longer trust the guy to hold up consistently in a playoff run.
Theres no way I am betting on him to win against Von Miller in a rematch.
The sad thing is Shaq Barrett is the other guy mentioned here and he was also a no show at home vs the Rams. Yes, if Im the Bucs Im looking to see what passrushers we can add……..and I would be looking to see what options are avialable for OT.
February 26th, 2022 at 4:09 pm
Saints spend money. It’s as simple as that. The Glazers have only two times. 2002 and 2021. Other teams find ways to go well above the cap. Not the Yucs! You are looking at a 6-11 team with ZERO hope of a pass rush. Every Bucs fan should be VERY concerned and Dumping their season tickets for a bucket of fried chicken.
February 26th, 2022 at 4:13 pm
Maybe, but the draft is what is most important. Ever since they capped what rookies can make, it makes or breaks franchises even more now.
Bengals have Joe Burrow for relatively nothing for example.
Last year our draft had one of the lowest immediate productions it has had in 5 years maybe. Tryon was OK, Trask and Hainsey literally didn’t play and Darden was pretty bad.
We need some impact players in the draft, guys who can play right away. That’s how we won the Super Bowl, we got Wirfs Winfield and Tyler Johnson who all made immediate impact on the team. Johnson wasn’t anything amazing, but he made a couple of huge plays compared to Darden making zero. He had an excellent punt return in a blowout vs the Bears and that was it all year.
If we push the cap this year as hard as others want on this site, we’re going to end up right where the Saints are and they are headed for the cellar of the NFL fast.
February 26th, 2022 at 4:47 pm
Our Olne was quite good even before Brady……look at the passing yardage from Winston….run blocking wasn’t that good though….
Our Oline remains the strength of our team.
February 26th, 2022 at 5:13 pm
The Saints believe that they have a championship roster. But they don’t. As long as they keep kicking the can, they will remain an annoying middle of pack club. Good for us.
February 26th, 2022 at 5:15 pm
Marine Buc,
I was being sarcastic.
Yes, he absolutely benefited from TB’s quick release. I fully anticipate that we’ll see the return of the real DURABLE DONNIE this season.
Overpaid, poor technique and lazy.
February 26th, 2022 at 5:18 pm
@ Jeff
You are probably not far off the mark.
Our last seven games are against – Rams, Seattle, Bengals, Ravens, Dallas, Chiefs and Packers…
Plus we are @ Pitt, SF, AZ and Clev…
Not to mention our (home game) in Germany.
February 26th, 2022 at 5:21 pm
@ dooosh
Lol!
My bad.
I didn’t pick up the /s…
February 26th, 2022 at 6:17 pm
If it were up to me D. Smith would have been gone a long time ago.
February 26th, 2022 at 6:22 pm
Looking at the Saints cap, it’s still going to be really really difficult to get under the cap. I don’t see how they don’t lose some key defensive guys one way or another. In some cases they have to resign guys because trading or cutting them would be more expensive.
Payton isn’t a dummy, he got out because he knows the Saints are in legit cap hell and will be for another couple of years most likely. You can manipulate the cap to some degree, but it does, eventually, catch up with you. With that said, it takes many years to catch up with you, so if you have a window open, you should take full advantage of it, which is what the Saints did. Even though they didn’t win anything, they still were year in and year out competitive for a long time.
February 26th, 2022 at 6:36 pm
“screwed, blued, and tattooed…” Sometimes you’re shot out of a barrel, sometimes you’re the barrel. Either way, there’s a bang.
February 26th, 2022 at 11:17 pm
I think they can extend Shaq and Smith out a little. Smith should be restructured a little as well. What I find funny it isn’t mentioned how the Saints are still more than 45 million over the salary cap. They are seriously hurting
February 27th, 2022 at 1:10 am
Marine Buc Says:
“D. Smith already has two “void” years on with $2.65 mil in each.
We could add money to those void years and deduct it from his salary of $15.75 million…
Adding $5 million to each void year would create $10 million of cap space.
We could also convert a void year into a contract year. I believe we did this with Mike Evans in the past.”
I don’t know if all of that is true or doable, but if it is, you got my vote!
February 27th, 2022 at 1:12 am
Defense Rules Says:
“AFTER their moves noted in the article, Saints are still sitting at MINUS $49.9 mil salary CAP with 57 players signed. IOW, they’ll have to make a LOT more salary cuts before season starts. And cutting a few low cost players doesn’t git er done.”
They usually have good offensive line players too. They are on their way to a fire sale.
February 27th, 2022 at 7:29 am
@DefenseRules. Thanks for the good analysis.
Not sure that I ever noticed DB Roby from the Saints that much. So not sure whether he would be a fit for Bowles defense or not.
February 27th, 2022 at 8:44 am
Defensive linemen tend to be easier to replace than defensive backs. Bucs need new blood everywhere on defense. Not a total rebuild, just some good drafts or free agents to replace the old or injured on the line and upgrades in dbs.
February 27th, 2022 at 5:10 pm
I dont think some of you understand that voided years just add dead cap space to future years. Without brady we are not a Superbowl contender so why would we sacrifice cap in future years.