By Ross Jackson
Salary cap maneuvering isn’t out of the ordinary for the New Orleans Saints. What is, though, is stockpiling available spending money.
The Saints are currently flush with cash. Not a phrase anyone gets to say all that often. However, general manager Mickey Loomis has publicly aimed to rein in the salary cap overages since they became more challenging following the NFL’s COVID-year cap reduction.
“We’re in that mode right now,” Loomis said soon after 2024’s season came to an end. “We’ve got to recover from some of the things that happened with COVID and the contracts that we did in the past…And look, I think we’re probably going to be in that mode for another year or so.”
Prior to the Friday afternoon signing of wide receiver Brandin Cooks, the Saints were holding on to more than $30 million of available funds. While Cooks’s contract averages $6.5 million per year, it’s likely that his first-year cap hit will come in lower than that.
Back where it all started. Welcome home, Brandin Cooks! 🏹
✍️ https://t.co/hXuuEYkrDz pic.twitter.com/8SIqdPHOwH
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) March 21, 2025
So, with just less than $30 million in salary cap space, what is New Orleans planning?
The thing is, their plans may have less to do with 2025 and more to do with 2026.
Whatever amount of cap space New Orleans doesn’t use in 2025 can be rolled over to 2026, where the team is currently estimated to be more than $10 million over the salary cap following the Cooks deal. New Orleans also needs to secure a starting offensive lineman and address remaining roster gaps through the draft, late free agency signings, and undrafted acquisitions.
They don’t need nearly $30 million to do any of that.
However, rolling over more than $10 million from 2025 to 2026 could be massively helpful in absorbing dead money hits that may set in next year. Many believe, for instance, that this will be the final season of quarterback Derek Carr in New Orleans. If that’s the case, the Saints would likely designate the veteran signal caller as a post-June 1 move, thereby starting themselves with a major cap hit to carry until June 2.
After which, a dead cap hit of $19 million would remain on the books as $50 million came off. But with free agency beginning in March, New Orleans needs relief well before June, which is where the potential rollover from 2025 could be a difference-maker.
Sure, the Saints could look to spend the stockpile this offseason, they could even look to absorb a cap hit here in 2025 should they make a surprise player move after June 1 this year. They could even use this surplus to allow themselves to fit someone beneath their cap ceiling via a trade before restructuring that player’s deal. But the most likely situation seems to be helping themselves next season, which is a sound strategy for a club set to undergo a lot of change next offseason.
