The New Orleans Saints and their dire cap situation

In recent 2021 cap projections, the New Orleans Saints could be somewhere in the ballpark of almost $80 million OVER the cap this season.

While everyone is talking about what the New Orleans Saints are going to be doing this offseason in free agency and the NFL Draft, the front office is wondering just how they are going to pay all of their current players this offseason to fall within cap limitations.

The Saints entered the offseason over $100 million over the 2021 cap.

With COVID-19 eating away most major sports profit projections, they have been forced to lower what they pay all of the players — essentially lowering the NFL’s cap. However, it may actually increase, just not at the typical rate.

The Saints have the highest 2021 cap projection of any team. They owe roughly $295 million. According to Adam Schefter and Field Yates, the NFL cap is projected to be between $180-181 million in the upcoming season.

Now, Drew Brees did what could be his last valiant effort for New Orleans. Early this month, Brees decided to take a pay cut for the last year of his contract which reduced his 2021 salary from $24 million down to the veterans minimum saving the Saints roughly $23 million.

Even then, that would still put New Orleans over the limit by $74.6 million, factoring in the potential new cap. With free agents like Trey Hendrickson, Marcus Williams, and Jameis Winston all hitting the open market this summer, New Orleans has some strong decisions to make.

Not only will they have to let the majority of their free agents find money with another team, but they will also likely be forced to restructure a large grouping of current players’ contracts as well in an effort to get the team to the $180 million mark.

You can surely expect some big moves to be made this offseason, but then again, Sean Payton and company always make the offseason interesting. This one is just going to be interesting for some other reasons than free agency splashes.