The Saints Are a Dumpster Fire!

[NanuqoftheNorth]

Yikes!  Nice breakdown of why the NFL salary cap matters...

 

[KSpan]

Eh, we've been saying this about NO every year for a decade now. I'm not saying it can be completely ignored, but it never seems to entirely bite them in the ass like it should.

[KatsAzz]

On 2/28/2023 at 9:44 AM, KSpan said:

Eh, we've been saying this about NO every year for a decade now. I'm not saying it can be completely ignored, but it never seems to entirely bite them in the ass like it should.

I still have not figured out how they keep signing big contracts and push the money forward without it catching up with them?

If someone knows the answer. please clue me in.

[Iron Saint]

On 4/21/2023 at 9:48 AM, KatsAzz said:

I still have not figured out how they keep signing big contracts and push the money forward without it catching up with them?

If someone knows the answer. please clue me in.

It's a combination of many factors including but not limited to the following:

• selectively deciding which of our players will be re-signed and at what price and will rarely, if ever, deviate from those values; our the front office usually has a set price in mind for not only our own guys, but any potential free agent signings as well
• allowing some players to walk in free agency for big money deals and collecting compensatory picks for their departure (this piggybacks off the first point) and using those picks either to package and trade up for higher value players (and hitting on them) or using them to provide quality depth; I'll also include strategic free agency signings that don't factor into the compensatory formula such as players that were released (like Carr despite us signing him to a massive deal and it not offsetting any potential comp picks)
• using void years sparingly and only on players the team is confident will sustain playing at a high level; the void years is a newer tactic and this seems like common sense but this is where teams that aren't very cap savvy quickly get burned by adding void years to oft-injured or old, declining players that end up getting released way earlier than the team intended forcing them to eat massive amounts of dead money years earlier than more than originally intended resulting in teams having holes across their depth chart without the available money to fill them
• factoring in the annual growth of the salary cap due to the revenue generated through the NFL's broadcasting contracts and maximizing those profits now instead of waiting until those future years; this is probably the biggest one and not something a lot of teams do (especially those sitting with a lot of cap space every single year), this one is the only reason that after the COVID season we had a larger dead money hit than the organization was planning for because that was the first season since I don't remember when that the salary cap didn't increase a significant amount

[KatsAzz]

5 minutes ago, Iron Saint said:

It's a combination of many factors including but not limited to the following:

• selectively deciding which of our players will be re-signed and at what price and will rarely, if ever, deviate from those values; our the front office usually has a set price in mind for not only our own guys, but any potential free agent signings as well
• allowing some players to walk in free agency for big money deals and collecting compensatory picks for their departure (this piggybacks off the first point) and using those picks either to package and trade up for higher value players (and hitting on them) or using them to provide quality depth; I'll also include strategic free agency signings that don't factor into the compensatory formula such as players that were released (like Carr despite us signing him to a massive deal and it not offsetting any potential comp picks)
• using void years sparingly and only on players the team is confident will sustain playing at a high level; the void years is a newer tactic and this seems like common sense but this is where teams that aren't very cap savvy quickly get burned by adding void years to oft-injured or old, declining players that end up getting released way earlier than the team intended forcing them to eat massive amounts of dead money years earlier than more than originally intended resulting in teams having holes across their depth chart without the available money to fill them
• factoring in the annual growth of the salary cap due to the revenue generated through the NFL's broadcasting contracts and maximizing those profits now instead of waiting until those future years; this is probably the biggest one and not something a lot of teams do (especially those sitting with a lot of cap space every single year), this one is the only reason that after the COVID season we had a larger dead money hit than the organization was planning for because that was the first season since I don't remember when that the salary cap didn't increase a significant amount

Thanks for the informative, heads up explanation.

[Beast_3000]

On 5/14/2023 at 8:20 PM, Iron Saint said:

It's a combination of many factors including but not limited to the following:

• selectively deciding which of our players will be re-signed and at what price and will rarely, if ever, deviate from those values; our the front office usually has a set price in mind for not only our own guys, but any potential free agent signings as well
• allowing some players to walk in free agency for big money deals and collecting compensatory picks for their departure (this piggybacks off the first point) and using those picks either to package and trade up for higher value players (and hitting on them) or using them to provide quality depth; I'll also include strategic free agency signings that don't factor into the compensatory formula such as players that were released (like Carr despite us signing him to a massive deal and it not offsetting any potential comp picks)
• using void years sparingly and only on players the team is confident will sustain playing at a high level; the void years is a newer tactic and this seems like common sense but this is where teams that aren't very cap savvy quickly get burned by adding void years to oft-injured or old, declining players that end up getting released way earlier than the team intended forcing them to eat massive amounts of dead money years earlier than more than originally intended resulting in teams having holes across their depth chart without the available money to fill them
• factoring in the annual growth of the salary cap due to the revenue generated through the NFL's broadcasting contracts and maximizing those profits now instead of waiting until those future years; this is probably the biggest one and not something a lot of teams do (especially those sitting with a lot of cap space every single year), this one is the only reason that after the COVID season we had a larger dead money hit than the organization was planning for because that was the first season since I don't remember when that the salary cap didn't increase a significant amount

Bro I tried to poke holes in your post because I hate the Saints but I legitimately couldn’t. Very informative and legit. I don’t want the Panthers following that formula but I can see how it’s worked for so long while providing quality players.
 

[KatsAzz]

13 hours ago, Beast_3000 said:

Bro I tried to poke holes in your post because I hate the Saints but I legitimately couldn’t. Very informative and legit. I don’t want the Panthers following that formula but I can see how it’s worked for so long while providing quality players.
 

I am surprised more NFL teams aren't following the Saints formula.

[Green-Ghost]

On 5/15/2023 at 9:09 PM, Beast_3000 said:

Bro I tried to poke holes in your post because I hate the Saints but I legitimately couldn’t. Very informative and legit. I don’t want the Panthers following that formula but I can see how it’s worked for so long while providing quality players.
 

I am not saying the Panthers should adopt this system.  That being said, it probably should be considered an option.  Too many people let emotions control their judgement. 

[rayzor]

that's some kind of random bump there, @Green-Ghost