4 easiest roster decisions for NOLA Saints in 2022 offseason

3. Restructure 2 major contracts

Two critical members of the Saints were extended before the 2021 season got underway. Marshon Lattimore was extended to a five-year deal worth $97 million while right tackle Ryan Ramczyk was locked up on to a similar five-year $96 million deal.

Both of these guys have been a huge part of the Saints’ success and fans were thrilled to see them get extended. The extensions were designed to be restructured down the road and that’s what we’re looking at now.

John Sigler of Saints Wire wrote a great article on what the Saints needed to do to get their cap situation under control. Here’s what he had to say about restructuring Lattimore’s five-year deal.

"Lattimore’s September contract extension was earmarked for a restructure in 2022, converting his $15 million roster bonus and most of his $9.1 million base salary into a new signing bonus to yield over $18.4 million in cap savings. So he goes from a team-leading $27.4 million cap hit ($13.19% of the established salary cap ceiling) to a relatively modest $8.9 million (just 4.32% of the cap ceiling)."

Here’s what Sigler said about Ramczyk’s pending restructure.

"Like with Lattimore, the deal Ramczyk signed late in the summer included a sizeable roster bonus ($8.5 million) and very high base salary ($10.5 million) for 2022, both of which will likely be folded up and spread out through a restructure. That would lower his cap hit from $22.8 million, third-highest on the team, all the way down to $8.4 million and cut the percent of cap commitments tied to him from 10.95% to 4.05%."

Both of these are no-brainers. They’re two key players who the Saints want to remain in the organization for the next half-decade and restructuring both of their deals makes everyone happy.