Saints Looking to Trade Pierre Thomas, Lance Moore, Possibly Darren Sproles

The New Orleans Saints may trade running back Pierre Thomas and wide receiver Lance Moore, per ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter's sources. The Saints might also be open to dishing Darren Sproles as well.

Schefter tweeted out the huge news not too long ago:

Saints shopping RB Pierre Thomas and WR Lance Moore to other teams, per sources, and even could be open to trading RB Darren Sproles also.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 6, 2014

Anyone who has been following along closely to the Saints this off-season should not be surprised. The Saints are incredibly cash-strapped in relation to the 2014 NFL salary cap, which they need to be under by next Tuesday, March 11th.

With Jimmy Graham on the books for $7,035,000 as a franchise tagged tight end, the Saints only have $1.5 million in cap space. And they've still got important free agents like Zach Strief, Brian de la Puente, and Malcolm Jenkins to pay if they want to keep them. So if the Saints also want to make any significant moves in free agency this month, they'll need to free up some cap space.

Trading Thomas, Moore, or even Sproles would do exactly that, and makes a lot more sense than simply outright cutting them. Why not try and get something for them? Yours truly actually brought up the possibility of a Pierre Thomas trade just a week ago. I won't say I'm a genius but...

Sproles is set to count $4,250,000 against the 2014 cap. Pierre Thomas is set to count $2,900,000 against the 2014 cap. And Lance Moore will count $5,068,750 against the 2014 cap. By getting rid of all of them, the Saints would save nearly $9 million in cap space.

The Saints could either acquire more draft picks by trading any of these players, or might be looking for a replacement whose contract is significantly more cap friendly. I suppose the Saints could also potentially bundle two or even all of these players together for a package deal.