Notice I didn’t put “Salary Cap Hell” when I was coming up with a title for this article for several reasons.
First because that has been used enough and second because the New Orleans Saints have never truly been in “Hell” but “Purgatory” which Merriam-Webster defines as “a place or state of temporary suffering or misery” whereas Hell is…..
FOREVER-EVER-EVER-EVER!
Sorry, I wished I had a cool sound effect for that but all caps and bold print was the best I got.
Another part of that definition that is pretty ironic in that it also describes that the person in purgatory is there to make good on past sins so that they can work their way into heaven, or I guess a debt free divinity is the best way to put it.
The Saints have a lot of cardinal sins they need to work off for sure in their rise from Super Bowl champs to the fall of three sub-par seasons that won’t even pass for mediocre.
Poor drafting has been one of the main culprits pointed out with the team only retaining only a few of their draft picks over the years, compounded with the team not having that many selections to begin with.
After being crowned a genius for their selections and finding hidden gems upon head coach Sean Payton’s arrival in 2006, I’ve wondered sometimes lately what fool’s gold college film the scouting staff has been looking at.
Raise your hand if you’ve had to Google the player and/or their school selected by the Saints during the past 5-6 years…
Raise your hand if you thunked your head against the wall when Payton’s response to selecting said player was because “he’s a smart football player” with an attribute like “quick feet” or “heavy hands” added to the end….
Yeah, me too.
With the limited number of draft selections the Saints have had up until recently, free agency had been their avenue of hope in filling their ranks with savvy veterans who not only could inject leadership but contribute on the field.
On top of paying outside free agents, the team has tried to stay ahead of the game and given out lucrative contracts to their own players before they hit the market.
With those last two points, names like Jarius Byrd, Brandon Browner, C.J. Spiller, and Coby Fleener, along with Junior Galette and Jimmy Graham, highlight some of those contracts given under the banner of Saints fans longtime battle cry for Saints general manager Mickey Loomis to “do work” and were condoned even to a lesser extent due to the going market price of the player’s position such as Fleener.
The sting of these Achilles heel contracts have been the lack of return on investments the Saints made on the players, with dead money piling up and forcing the team to “kick the can” with other contracts in order for them to just simply be able to fit below the salary cap before the start of the league year.
But 2017 brought a flickering light when the Saints were actually shown to be in the black on their cap number before even having to tweak a contract with a current player on the roster, mainly because the burdening chains shackled on them from dead money debacles like Galette’s and others have been broken.
Last year the team had over $40 million in dead money they were packing compared to only a little over $9 million for this upcoming season with approximately $29.7 million in cap space according to OverTheCap.com.
There are only five players contributing to the debt for this year headlined by former cornerback Keenan Lewis with $3.6 million followed by Spiller($2.5 million), Browner($1.3 million), James Laurinaitis($1.2 million), and Garrett Grayson($366,584).
OTC is also showing that next year the Saints are projected to be zeroed out with dead money for 2018 provided they don’t incur anymore issues and almost $61 million in cap space but that figure will surely go down after free agency this year as well as for 2018 when quarterback Drew Brees and safety Kenny Vaccaro are set to hit the open market.
The current vibe I’m getting from Saints fans is they’re acting as if the almost $30 million in space this year is equivalent to $100 million and looking for the Saints to make some big splashes in free agency.
“Man they need to sign Dont’a Hightower, A.J. Bouye, Kevin Zeitler, and oh yeah Jason Pierre-Paul man, we got to have JPP! Jayyy-Peeeeee-Peeeeee!! Super Bowl baby! Two Dat!!!”
But the reality is that the almost $30 million they have isn’t going to go as far as you think especially if you get into a bidding war(which Loomis is notorious for not doing) with another team that has double the cap space and aren’t in the middle of a “YOLO Year” like the Saints are with questions abound about what will happen with your franchise quarterback and head coach if you hit a C- grade in December.
Add to that the Saints need money to sign their draft picks for 2017 and likely trying to reserve some to retain players like Brees and Vaccaro for the future and the space begins to fill in.
I know Who Dat’s want the team to spend it all to achieve some success but the New England Patriots, who have won their second Super Bowl in the past three years, currently have the third most salary cap space in the NFL with a little over $65 million.
Let that sink in…
So while these Saints have begun there ascent into what is hopefully a heavenly turnaround, they can’t afford(literally) to backslide into more devilish dealings that put them right back into realm of salary cap purgatory again.
It may not technically be Hell, but it sure feels like it.
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