New Orleans Saints Salary Cap Update: Team $4.68 million under

As per the NFLPA public salary cap report, the New Orleans Saints are sitting in a good position heading into the NFL Draft at the end of the month. The team is now $4.689 million under the NFL’s salary cap. The Saints were previously $844K under before the latest major move that helped the Saints’ cap situation, which involved the contract extension of Jahri Evans.

Evans’ base salary figure dropped from $6.8 million to $1.003 million in 2015, $8 million to $3 million in 2016, and dropped from $8 million to $4.9 million in 2017. Originally, Evans was the second highest drainer on the team’s cap situation, scheduled to count for $11 million for 2015. Evans’ overall cap figure drops to $7 million this year, and received a $5.4 million bonus.

Newly signed cornerback Kyle Wilson has a base salary of $745K this season.

For those wondering about rookie salary cap space, the New Orleans Saints look to be ‘good to go’ to sign their draft picks. As per Over the Cap, who explains the process perfectly, this is how the impact is made for rookies:

"Some people think that this is additional money added on top of the salary cap which is not the case at all. The “Rookie Pool” is a cap within the salary cap. It is essentially money that your team needs to place aside for your rookies. It is not added to your salary cap at all and it has to fit in the $143.28 million cap limit that is set for each team. If signing a rookie puts a team over the cap they will not be permitted to sign the player until they have the cap room to do so.The second thing that confuses people is the amount of cap space required to fit in a rookie class. This is probably the biggest mistake made regarding rookie salaries and their role in cap management. Usually someone will see that rookie salaries are expected to total $6 million and then make the assumption that the team needs $6 million in cap space to sign their rookies. That’s not really correct.During the offseason NFL roster expand to 90 players and only the top 51 players count against the salary cap. Every rookie that is signed will either replace a player currently in the top 51 or not count enough against the cap to be in the top 51, in which case only their prorated bonus money will count against the cap. This is why it is important to understand the concept of effective cap space."

General manager Mickey Loomis continues to shock and awe us all with his ability to work the salary cap.

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