The question to getting under the cap has begun: the Saints have converted $6.07M of S Marcus Maye’s 2023 compensation into a signing bonus, creating $4.856M in cap space, per source.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 15, 2023
The New Orleans Saints have begun their annual round of salary cap maneuvering, per ESPN’s Field Yates, who reports that the Saints have restructured their contract with starting safety Marcus Maye to free up about $4,856,000 in salary cap accounting for the 2023 season. That leaves them in the red by more than $50 million, but it’s a start.
Remember, this isn’t a pay cut. Maye agreed to convert $6.07 million of his 2023 compensation into a signing bonus which, for accounting purposes, will be spread out over future seasons. Our own Ross Jackson explained the mechanics of this move — Maye’s base salary was reduced to the veteran’s minimum at $1.08 million, with the difference added to his roster bonus and then converted to a signing bonus. Maye still gets his money, but it’s paid out in a structure that better benefits the team.
And because this is now being paid out in a signing bonus rather than in weekly game checks, Maye will continue to get the paid for any time he loses to a possible suspension. He’s had a DUI charge in Florida hanging over him since the 2021 offseason, and he was arrested following a road rage incident in New Orleans last year. Either or both of those cases could lead to a league suspension once the legal process finishes playing out.
Availability was always in question with the Saints signing Maye, and those concerns were justified last season when he missed six games with injuries. He’s struggled to stay on the field throughout his career. The risk in restructuring a contract with a player is it becomes more difficult to get out of it later, and it’ll leave some dead money behind once they’re off the roster. Maye turns 30 in March and could miss time in the fall with a suspension, and injuries are going to continue to be a concern. He isn’t under contract beyond 2024, but he’ll leave a $6 million dead money cap hit behind unless the Saints restructure his deal again this time next year (when he’ll be counting against the cap by more than $9.9 million).
Tying yourself more closely to an aging player with questionable availability isn’t ideal. But the Saints didn’t realistically have any better options. Outright releasing Maye would have cost them an addition $3.35 million in salary cap penalties, and it’s tough to say whether they’d find a trade partner for him. They’ll just have to ride this contract out and hope the salary cap rises high enough in 2024 and 2025 that they can work around it.
Hopefully he enjoys better health this year to justify their investments in him. Maye is the only safety with much range to speak of on the back end in New Orleans, though he didn’t create as many turnovers or impact plays as his predecessors Marcus Williams and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. It would make a lot of sense to draft and begin developing his replacement this year.