It does not look like a Ryan Ramczyk comeback will commence for the Saints. A serious knee injury remains likely to end the former All-Pro tackle’s career, and some paperwork emerging Wednesday all but confirms it.
The Saints and Ramczyk agreed to a restructure that will save the team more than $16MM in cap space, OverTheCap’s Jason Fitzgerald reports. Ramczyk has agreed to trim his $18MM 2025 base salary down to the $1.26MM veteran minimum (for his service-time number).
This transaction will paves the way for the Saints to designate Ramczyk a post-June 1 cut, Fitzgerald adds. Before this reworking, the Saints would have needed to carry a $29MM cap number on their books until the funds emerged June 2. Sitting well south of every other team in terms of cap space, per usual, the Saints need to make several moves to reach compliance by the start of the 2025 league year. Even with this transaction, New Orleans sits more than $50MM over the NFL’s projected 2025 salary cap.
The post-June 1 cut will allow the Saints to split Ramczyk’s $23.1MM in dead money across two years. New Orleans used its two post-June 1 cut designations in 2024 (on Jameis Winston and Michael Thomas); Ramczyk being one of the team’s two allotted slots this year seems a good bet. Ramczyk had been tied to the five-year, $96MM deal he signed during Sean Payton‘s final offseason in charge (2021).
Although Saints winter restructures are commonplace, this one means more due to what it probably entails for Ramczyk. Part of a 2017 draft class that changed the franchise’s trajectory, Ramczyk arrived in the first round and became an instant starter. This helped Drew Brees remain on the NFL’s top tier at his position into his late 30s. Ramczyk, 30, made three All-Pro squads, including the 2019 first team, and started seven seasons for the Saints.
Late in the 2023 season, Ramczyk was believed to be at a career crossroads due to a troublesome knee injury. The Wisconsin alum ended that season on IR, though he still played 12 games, and hit the Saints’ reserve/PUP list to start training camp last year. That move ended Ramczyk’s season. The Saints used Trevor Penning in all 17 games at right tackle, with the 2022 first-rounder stabilizing his career to a degree after two rocky years. New Orleans drafted Taliese Fuaga to play left tackle.
The Saints still have two Brees-era O-line bastions — Erik McCoy and Cesar Ruiz — signed to extensions, but Ramczyk is all but certain to move off the team’s roster a year after an Andrus Peat contract reworking led to his exit.