Saints looking to extend Lattimore, Ramczyk to save money

Earlier this week, the New Orleans Saints restructured the contracts of linebacker Demario Davis and defensive end Cameron Jordan. Both of those were in an effort to continue to reduce the players’ cap hits to get below the max before the start of the league year.

Two other stars that the team can restructure to long-term, lucrative deals in order to save monetarily would be cornerback Marshon Lattimore and offensive lineman Ryan Ramczyk while simultaneously building for the future.

The Saints continue to make moves all centered around getting below the cap number. Extending Ramzyk and Lattimore could be the next move.

Marshon Lattimore is entering the final year of his 4-year, $15 million deal that he signed in 2017. His cap hit for the 2021 year $10.244 million. We all know that the Saints see Lattimore as a long-term part of their team, so they need to sign him to a contract worthy of that.

If the team was to offer Lattimore a contract in the ballpark of 6 years and $100 million, they could give him a $10 million signing bonus pushing his 2021 salary hit off. If they put his 2021 base salary down to $1 million, they could theoretically save between $7-8 million.

They could do the same thing with offensive lineman Ryan Ramczyk. He is entering the final year of a 4-year, $8 million contract, but his 2021 cap hit is $11 million. Virtually, they could duplicate what they did with Lattimore.

They could extend Ramczyk to a 4-year, $62 million contract with an $11 million signing bonus. That would shift Ramczyk’s 2021 cap hit to roughly $2 million saving the team another $7-9 million on top of Lattimore’s savings.

Not only would both of these extensions save the team money toward this season, but they would also play a big part in solidifying the future at those positions for the Saints. This would have to be done before the new league year.