The New Orleans Saints are starting to run out of couch cushions to flip over in their search for more pennies. After adding a few veteran players to the practice squad like Kenny Stills and Austin Reiter, the team found itself under the salary cap by little more than $29,000. Any additional moves would be dicey, so they’ve been approaching almost every player not already on the books at a veteran’s minimum salary for a restructure. Every little bit helps.
ESPN’s Field Yates reported Tuesday that the Saints did just that with Tre’Quan Smith, who is on injured reserve. As has become customary for them, the Saints restructured most of Smith’s base salary into a signing bonus spread out over four automatically-voided years, creating $954,267 in cap space. That gets them clear of the spending limit and will allow them to continue with business as usual (which is good news considering they just opened two spots on the 53-man roster by waiving Jordan Miller and Wynton McManis).
Remember, these aren’t pay cuts. Smith gets his money now instead of in weekly installments over the course of the season, and the Saints will have to account for the $954,267 they saved now in a dead money charge next year if he leaves in free agency. It’s not ideal for every team, but it’s a good tool that has served them well.
So what’s next? Don’t expect any earth-shaking additions in a trade or free agent signing. Right now, the Saints are under the cap by just $983,309. If they were to bump Stills from the practice squad to the active roster (as is expected), his salary cap charge would jump from the $238,000 he’s currently counting up to the $1.075 million minimum salary for a player of his experience. If the Saints don’t touch any other contracts after promoting him, they would be left with just $146,309 in cap space.
It wasn’t supposed to be this tight. Between the COVID-19 pandemic prompting a sudden drop in the cap and the Saints issuing the franchise tag to Marcus Williams, which created a $10.6 million cap hit they cannot manipulate in any way, they’re really stretching the limits of what can be done to find more resources. Here’s hoping the talent they’ve accumulated is enough to get back in the win column this week.
Leave a Reply