Saints create $26.217M in cap space, per reports

The New Orleans Saints’ uphill climb back to being under the salary cap is underway as they convert the contracts of two players according to early reports. The Saints have created $26.217M in cap space by converting $14.565M of Michael Thomas’s 2022 contract and Ryan Ramczyk’s $18.206M into signing bonuses. To make the math work, the Saints added two voidable years to Michael Thomas’ deal to maximize the restructure potential.

These two moves alone should put the Saints around < $50M over the cap, which is still a long road ahead, but progress has already been made. There are plenty of restructures to be made and a handful of different contracts they could do it with. Another key piece for the Saints to get under the cap is the decision regarding Bradley Roby and his $10M cap hit, where an outright release contains no dead cap hit for 2022.

The new league year and free agency begin on March 16th, so the Saints have only about three weeks to get under the salary cap. Over the next few days, the Saints will be busy moving money, and they then need to look to their own free agents such as Marcus Williams and Terron Armstead, among others, before that March 16th date, to find money between the sofa cushions.