Over the recent years, the New Orleans Saints have been at the center of salary cap talk due to their sizable financial overages. The 2023 season will not be an exception. The NFL announced that the league’s salary cap would be set at $224.8 million. While the amount is an all-time high and represents a rebound to the pre-pandemic trajectory, the Saints will be right back in the thick of things trying to trim back a deficit of over $60 million as projected by Over The Cap. Believe it or not, New Orleans can get below that overage by more than enough to land a big-fish quarterback this offseason.
With veteran quarterback Derek Carr certainly on the move this offseason, his ties to Saints head coach Dennis Allen lead many to believe that he will find his way to New Orleans. Many will ask “How can the Saints afford him?”, the perennial question of any offseason in the Big Easy. The answer is simple, they keep going with their usual offseason approach. It is more than possible for them to make room for Carr (about $32.9 million), who is visiting them on Wednesday, and inherently Lamar Jackson as well if he is tagged and traded (roughly $32.4 million). Here’s an idea of how the Saints could get it done: