The New Orleans Saints have entered get-under-the-cap season, and there's one big lever to pull to take a big chunk out of their more than $80 million in cap overages: restructure QB Derek Carr.
It's a route the Saints are expected to take, according to a report from NOLA.com, with the team able to clear up to $23 million in the 2024 season, the largest sum of any deal currently on the books.
The move would not necessarily be a surprise, considering both head coach Dennis Allen and GM Mickey Loomis have made it clear the team is committed to Carr for 2024 and likely beyond. Restructuring his deal would push a significant chunk of guaranteed money into 2025, making that scenario even more likely.
“I think he did a lot of good things, and it wasn’t perfect, for certain, but he did a lot of good things," Loomis said in his end-of-year press conference. "And listen, I think that he was hurt for a good portion of the season, probably moreso than he would let on or that was out there, so I felt like he kind of hit his stride toward the end and we did collectively, too, and he’s not the only player or position that was the case for.”
Restructuring Carr would be far from the only move that the Saints will have to make, but it will make things much easier. The Saints will likely restructure other veteran deals, including that of DE Cam Jordan ($9.4M), Alvin Kamara ($8.1M), Demario Davis ($8.1M), Carl Granderson ($8.1M), and others down the line.
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The complication that made a Carr restructure seem inevitable is Ryan Ramczyk, who represents the second-highest contract in terms of restructure potential ($11.8M), but has a very uncertain future due to knee issues that ended his 2023 season in Week 15. Restructuring his deal would create more immediate flexibility, but could be problematic if he is unable to play in 2024 or 2025. The Saints would have to carry his cap number at more than $27 million if it's not touched, but there are more than enough deals to absorb that, particularly if Carr is restructured.
In the end, the cap dance is a familiar one for the Saints, who have dealt with similar cap overages each of the past several years. Loomis has indicated multiple times that the team would like to navigate closer to the middle in that regard, but there also won't be any fundamental change in how they operate in that regard.
"I don’t know that change is the right word," Loomis said. "We’ve just got to be conscious of, you know, making up some ground in the next few years and there’s different ways to do that."