Here’s another expected move for the New Orleans Saints. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports that the Saints completed a restructure of their contract with starting safety Tyrann Mathieu, yielding $4,668,000 in savings against the 2023 salary cap. They did this by converting most of his $7 million base salary into a signing bonus which is, for accounting purposes, going to be spread out over future years.
We saw this coming. Because Mathieu’s base salary was already guaranteed, the Saints were planning all along to move that money around in a way that best benefits the team. Instead of carrying Mathieu on an $8.9 million salary cap hit this season, he’ll instead play at a more-manageable $4,232,000 figure.
This does raise Mathieu’s salary cap hit in 2024 to the double-digits, and it’s going to be the final year of the three-season deal he signed last summer. But between another $7 million base salary and a $2 million roster bonus, it’s primed for either another restructure or possibly an extension if Mathieu wants to continue playing into 2025 and beyond.
The Saints are now over the 2023 salary cap by about $31.4 million after restructuring their contracts with Marcus Maye, Erik McCoy, and Ryan Ramczyk while bringing back Wil Lutz on a pay cut. They have more work to do to get under the cap ahead of the March 15 deadline.