Hoodie Network
Hoodie Network believes in producing content that is true and reliable, so it’s important for me to correct myself when I post something incorrect or misleading. In my previous article, I talked about how the Saints would be the least favorable landing spot for a head coaching candidate. I said:
What coach would think following Sean Payton, a Saints and NFL legend, with no starting quarterback and already almost $80 million over the salary cap for next season? Now I’m a firm believer that the salary cap doesn’t exist in the NFL, but only to a certain point. $80 million seems like somewhere around that point. Being the coach that has to figure out how to navigate the “post Sean Payton” Saints seems like a tough ask.
– Mason Spelich, New Coaches, Brian Flores’ Lawsuit, and Talking Diversity
I still agree with 99% of what I wrote. The Saints have a big challenge ahead of them in a first-year HC, finding a new quarterback, dealing with the Michael Thomas drama, and trying to improve their team in hopes of winning a championship.
Here’s where I was wrong: It’s technically true that they are $80 million in the red, but then I saw Nick Korte’s tweet. He works at OverTheCap.com and made a chart that shows the maximum amount of cap space each team could have if they restructure the contracts already on their books. I can’t stress enough how good of a job he did! Without getting too technical (maybe that will be a future article), a team can take the signing bonus for a player and spread it out over future years, which gives them more salary cap space for the current season.
According to Nick Korte’s chart, the Saints could restructure anywhere between $101,417,471 and $119,047,402, giving them between $21,683,830 and $39,313,761 in cap space for this coming season. I knew that they would be able to get under the cap for next year, but being able to find up to $39 million in cap space is incredible. They have done a really good job at manipulating the cap numbers and structuring their contracts. They will actually have a decent amount of money to work with this offseason, and I look forward to watching them pull off a straight up magic trick.