The New Orleans Saints shaved more than $14 million off their books in a contract restructure with Michael Thomas, setting up the former All-Pro wide receiver for a split in March. Thomas is likely going to be released with a post-June 1 designation, which would create the greatest savings against the 2023 salary cap, but that’s something to worry about on another day.
In the meantime, we have a better idea now of the Saints’ salary cap outlook for the coming offseason. Thomas lowered his 2023 cap hit from $28.2 million to just over $13.1 million, which brings their current cap commitments down from $283 million to about $267 million, give or take a couple million dollars. That’s still well over the projected salary cap for 2023; multiple reports have said it will settle at around $220 million, with an influx of new broadcasting rights deals padding the NFL’s coffers.
So at the end of the day, the Saints still have a lot of work to do after this contract restructure with Thomas. Over The Cap’s estimates have New Orleans in the red by more than $38.7 million. Here are some of the top salary cap hits they’ll need to address in the weeks and months ahead: