Soon, the New Orleans Saints will start one of the NFL’s annual traditions: salary cap gymnastics. In recent years, the Saints have ended every season projected to be over the salary cap, and every offseason, New Orleans pulls off some cap space magic to become a cap compliant team. This year will be no different.
The magic typically consists of contract restructures, using void years to kick the can down the road, and a few painful cap casualties. Cap casualties are players who are released mainly to open up cap space, and that’s an unfortunate situation that happens every year.
As the offseason approaches for the entire league, Bleacher Report’s scouting department recently predicted this year’s cap casualties for all 32 teams. For New Orleans, Bleacher Report landed on three names: Khalen Saunders, Cedrick Wilson Jr., and Foster Moreau.
Bleacher Report names Khalen Saunders, Cedrick Wilson Jr., and Foster Moreau as Saints’ most likely cap casualties
The staff at Bleacher Report detailed how New Orleans doesn’t have many options because of the many restructures the team did in past years, but these three veterans would actually make a difference if cut. Releasing Saunders would free up $2.6 million, $2.4 million for Wilson, and $2.8 million for Moreau.
The case for releasing all three boil down to them being veterans whose roles aren’t that big. With how the Saints’ roster is currently structured, they could handle moving on from Wilson and Saunders, but Moreau would be a more complicated decision.
Juwan Johnson, the other veteran tight end on the roster, will enter free agency this offseason, and Taysom Hill is recovering from a severe knee injury. Additionally, he’s more of a position-less weapon than a true tight end. That all means New Orleans would likely keep Moreau under contract. The other two players listed, however, could be gone.