UPDATED: Reports anticipate Saints will restructure Terron Armstead’s deal, possibly clear $100M overage

UPDATE: Details about the Terron Armstead’s contract have become clear after his March 16 restructure. The restructure will save about $8 million in cap space after adding a voidable year.

As the New Orleans Saints continue to work their way below the NFL’s spending limit, one of the moves we’ve all been waiting for may be on the way. Looks like the Saints are will restructure left tackle Terron Armstead’s deal, which should mean converting a portion of his $10.15M base salary into a signing bonus.

The full details have not yet been released, nor does the transaction look to be official but we will update once things fall in place. The Saints stand to save a good chunk of change here to help offset some of the spending they did yesterday re-signing both quarterback Jameis Winston and offensive lineman James Hurst.

2021 is technically the final year on Armstead’s contract, however there are two voidable years in 2022 and 2023.

There was curiosity as to whether or not New Orleans would choose to possibly extend him into those years as opposed to a restructure. We’ll see how the contract details lay out once official.

Armstead had a phenomenal season last year, particularly toward the end of the year where he seemed to flip a switch and play lights out at the second most important position on the offense.

In 2020, Pro Football Focus credited the three-time Pro Bowler with only 19 allowed pressures including three sacks. He’s consistently been one of the best left tackles in the NFL when healthy and has performed very well toward the end of his current contract.

Now, he will be protecting a new starting quarterback for the first time in his career when it comes to a full season outlook. Of course, he protected Teddy Bridgewater and Taysom Hill well over the last two years when Drew Brees missed with injury.

As the transaction’s details are released, we’ll get a better idea of how much money the team is saving in the restructure. As of now, rough estimates and with some deals still pending Over the Cap has the Saints at $11.9M over while Spotrac has them closer to just $6M. The Saints likely sit somewhere in between, meaning this could be the move that gets the job done as New Orleans works its way out of a $100M overage without losing an extremely talented core.

Remaining moves can be made to open up more spending room such as extensions to Marshon Lattimore, Ryan Ramczyk, and Marcus Williams. But as New Orleans may no longer have to rely on these moves in order to break even, it works well for the team in negotiations.

Check back for more updates on the deal.

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