Saints restructure Michael Thomas’ contract

New Orleans reached a deal with the star wide receiver to relieve cap space

METAIRIE — The New Orleans Saints moved more than 26 million dollars in charges of the salary cap to future years restructure contracts star wide receiver michael thomas and starting offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyka source told Field Yates of ESPN this Saturday.

Expect more moves like this in the coming days, as New Orleans begins the offseason with about 75 million above the salary cap projected for 2022 of 208.2 million per team, the highest figure among all NFL franchises.

The restructuring from Thomas is especially noteworthy as it further indicates that New Orleans he has no plans to trade his star wide receiver. The saints converted the 14.6 million of the scheduled salary of Thomas and their roster bonuses into a signing bonus, which means they can spread the charges of the salary cap for the next five years. However, this also means that they would be in trouble for all those charges against him. salary cap this year if they get to redeem Thomas.

In the same way, New Orleans converted the 18.2 million of the scheduled salary of Ramczyk and roster bonuses in a signing bonus.

The good news for saints is that they have space to move more than 100 million in costs of the salary cap into future years without cutting any current players if they don’t want to. Obviously, they’ll have to deal with those charges in future seasons. But this has been a common practice for saints over the past decade with general manager Mickey Loomis and vice president of football administration Khai Harley, and has become more common across the league after the coronavirus pandemic reduced the salary cap in the NFL at nearly $16 million per team in 2021.

And Loomis has made it clear this offseason that saints they have no intention of rebuilding their roster despite Sean Payton’s decision to step down as head coach. The saints they say they can contend for the NFC South title under new head coach Dennis Allen, who retained Pete Carmichael Jr. as his offensive coordinator and Ryan Nielsen and Kris Richard as his co-defensive coordinators.

It would not be surprising to see the saints aiming for the top of the quarterback market if stars like Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson are available through trade-in.

Otherwise, they could make trying to re-sign some of their own free agents, including quarterback, a priority. James Winstonleft tackle Terron Armstead and the deep marcus-williams.