New Orleans Saints: The Unforeseen Benefits of Retirements

The New Orleans Saints have been playing "kick the can" for over a decade now, and it might finally be coming to an end. But in order to finally finish this "game", they're going to have to suffer some growing pains sooner than they planned.

Saints Face Financial Reckoning After Decade of Deferral

This "kick the can" game we're talking about is the way the Saints have treated the NFL Salary Cap in the mid-2010s. Where the team over-extended their allowable contract expenses, but kept "restructuring" deals to extend the players' deals, and push the money further out. But every season they did that, they just hurt the season they moved the money to.

For example, and these aren't real numbers, but if the NFL Salary Cap for a year was $100 million, the Saints were coming into that year with $150 million in contracts. So they would go to a handful of players with long-term deals, and restructure the contract to add a few years on the end, or make some of the money a signing bonus, or whatever they had to do to spread the money around. They'd get that year to $99 million, under the cap, but they just moved $51 million to the year after, and they would just have to do it again.

The team literally did this nonstop since 2014, knowing that eventually they were going to have to face the music, and cut a bunch of money one year.

Well, that year has finally come, but it wasn't anything the Saints did. But the Saints are still in a position to "pay for it".

Saints' Salary Cap Finally Under Control, But at What Cost?

The shock retirement of quarterback Derek Carr, paired with the retirement of starting offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk, have provided financial relief to the Saints' Salary Cap. But it does come with a cost.

As far as the savings go, the combined retirements will bring over $2.5 million in relief for the 2025 season. But for the 2026 year, Carr's retirement will bring $28.7 million back to the Saints salary cap, and Ramczyk's retirement will result in $11 million in savings. So over $40 million in savings against the salary cap for the next two years.

Shock Retirements Force Saints to Embrace Youth Movement

However, with these two retirements, the Saints will be forced to rely on inexperience on their offense. During the NFL Draft, the Saints did make moves that help with these two departures, but those replacements will be rookies. Which doesn't mean instant success.

On the offensive line, the Saints took Kelvin Banks, Jr with their first round pick. Because they were aware that Ramczyk was done. So filling his spot with a high pick was really important.

But when it comes to Carr's retirement, the Saints didn't seem to know this was going to play out. At the time of the draft, the word was still floating around that Carr was hurt, and would miss part of (if not all of) the 2025 season. With his age, contract, and injury, the Saints knew they were going to need to take a quarterback. Which they did, by selecting Tyler Shough in the second round. But if they knew that Carr was done, would they have traded up to take a different quarterback? Or if Shough was the guy no matter what, should they have traded back into the late first round to get that extra year on his contract?

New Orleans Offense: Can Rookies Fill Veteran Shoes?

The Saints are left with some inexperience along their offensive line, and no quarterback who has started more than 6 NFL games in a season (yes, this includes Taysom Hill who started 4 games in 2020). If Shough is the starter to begin the year, you'll have a tremendous amount of inexperience on the line, and under center. But hey, you're salary cap situation is finally under control.