Ranking the Saints' highest salary cap hits after Derek Carr, Ryan Ramczyk retirements
Ranking the Saints' highest salary cap hits after Derek Carr, Ryan Ramczyk retirements
A couple of big retirements hit the New Orleans Saints' accounting books this month with both Derek Carr and Ryan Ramczyk stepping away from football. With those two contracts out of the way, which players now carry the highest salary cap hits on the team?
It isn't as easy as saying "This guy has the biggest contract." The Saints always get creative in structuring deals and restructuring them in the years that follow so they can spread out the costs. It's a strategy that makes sense when the salary cap is going up and your team is competitive with a sure thing at quarterback. But the COVID years changed expectations for the cap, and the Saints never did find a worthy successor to Drew Brees. So now they're working to recover.
And they're very close to cleaning up the books. The Saints have almost $30 million in salary cap space right now, despite accounting for nearly $77 million in dead money going to players no longer on the roster. The cap is rising again and they'll be on the other side of this thing sooner rather than later. With almost all of this year's salary cap gymnastics behind us, here's a look at their 15 highest cap hits in 2025:
Taysom Hill: $17,986,500 Alvin Kamara: $10,061,471 Cameron Jordan: $9,775,000 Erik McCoy: $8,351,000 Demario Davis: $6,923,000 Chase Young: $6,842,000 Carl Granderson: $6,482,000 Chris Olave: $6,131,959 Tyrann Mathieu: $6,091,000 Cesar Ruiz: $5,866,000 Juwan Johnson: $5,245,000 Kelvin Banks Jr.: $5,042,045 Foster Moreau: $4,634,000 Trevor Penning: $4,500,146 Rashid Shaheed: $4,450,000
Something has to give with Hill's contract -- either another restructure, a pay cut, or some other arrangement. He's still recovering from a season-ending knee injury and the Saints aren't in a position to pay him that much money at this stage in his career. If he does plan on playing this season, they'll have to choose whether to take their lumps now or kick the can down the road a little further, knowing that Hill's contract ends after this season. It isn't an easy problem to solve.
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