Given the Saints cap situation, they had no leverage in trade negotiations
When the Saints looked to trade players like Malcom Brown or Emmanuel Sanders, it doesn’t seem like anyone should have taken them seriously. Why would a team give up something for said player when they should feel confident they can lure them to that franchise in free agency?
The Saints are still under the salary cap, and they’re going to have to do more to be able to re-sign Jameis Winston. After slapping the franchise tag on high-profile safety Marcus Williams, the team must do more to cut cap and add more talent.
They’ve already done so much already though, making it hard to believe that more could be on the way. From releasing Nick Easton, Emmanuel Sanders, Janoris Jenkins, and a plethora of other talented players, the Saints have to take extreme actions this offseason.
The New Orleans Saints entered the offseason with the NFL’s worst cap situation which probably killed their leverage in trade negotiations.
In a normal offseason, the two options for a team wanting to trade a highly valuable player is either keep them or trade them. For the Saints, they’re on a mission to trade low-value players, and it hasn’t worked.
The team has ended release releasing former Pro Bowlers due to their cap situation. Clearly, those players, both old and young, can’t draw a crowd of suitors, and it’s because teams can call the Saints bluff.
It’s tough to tell how pursuant the Saints were in making a deal happen, but it really shouldn’t have mattered. Everyone from a mile away knew that the team was looking to cut Sanders, freeing up millions in cap space.
Next is Latavius Murray, who may not be cut but may actually find a trade. With New Orleans cutting Jenkins and Sanders but not Murray, it tells us Murray may have a market. The other three, for their contract, didn’t.
Given their contract, the Saints had to release them. It’s a tough position New Orleans was put in, but they did it to themselves after awarding Andrus Peat and Taysom Hill high-value contracts last offseason.
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With restructuring deals now a common practice in the Big Easy, we can expect this cap hell to extend into the future.