6 Teams That Should Already Be Planning Ahead for 2025 NFL Free Agency | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
- Trade Marshon Lattimore Before Week 1
- Extend Paulson Adebo Before the Season
- Trade Alvin Kamara by the Trade Deadline
No one manages the cap quite like the New Orleans Saints. That's no necessarily a compliment, it's just a statement of fact. The Saints routinely come into each offseason with a cap burden in excess of $75 million.
They are already projected to be $100.2 million over the cap next season.
It's a spending philosophy that can make some sense when a team is in position to contend. They continue to push money into future years with void years and restructures to theoretically put the most competitive team on the field they can.
But there have been diminishing returns for a while now. The Saints haven't been to the playoffs in three years since Drew Brees retired.
Trading Marshon Lattimore would be the kind of move that would finally move the Saints toward a true rebuild. The cornerback's restructured contract offers a an out-of-the-box way to create cap space.
As Dallas Robinson of Pro Football Network noted, the Saints converted Marshon Lattimore's salary into an option bonus that would go to his new team if he were traded between June 1 and Week 1 of the 2024 season. Trading him would mean the Saints only take on a dead cap charge between $10-13 million.
One reason the Saints could feel comfortable trading away Lattimore is the depth they have in the room. Paulson Adebo, Alontae Taylor and Kool-Aid McKinstry is a young trio worth building around.
The best cap-managing teams identify and pay young talent early. The Saints have an opportunity to do that by working to sign Adebo to an extension now. The 24-year-old has been a starter since he was a rookie put together a great season last year with four interceptions and an opponent passer rating of 62.7.
Paying him now will be cheaper in the long run than what they would pay if he has another season like that.
Alvin Kamara has been a star in the Saints offense since he was drafted, but he's set to have a $29.1 million cap hit in 2025. If they can find a taker between now and the trade deadline they could get him off the books and only have a $10 million dead cap charge in 2025.
