While there was some noise that the Saints may have some options with Derek Carr’s salary this year, the most likely outcome always was going to be a basic restructured contract and that is what happened today, as first reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. The Saints, per multiple reports, will free up anywhere from $30 to $31 million in salary cap space for 2025 with the conversion of Carr’s salary into a bonus. That should leave the team with about $10 million more they have to clear before the start of the new league year.
The Saints had put themselves in a difficult position with Carr due to their team salary cap situation and Carr’s own contract. The heavy amount of bonuses that were used in Carr’s contract during the first two years he was in New Orleans combined with a $10 million 2025 salary guarantee meant that Carr would count for $50.1 million in dead money if he was released from his contract. While dead money never makes a player uncuttable, the fact is if the Saints released Carr they would have had almost no ability to do anything in the offseason this year.
The Saints did not have the ability to cut many players for cap relief in 2025 and needed to rely on restructured deals to be cap compliant. Cutting Carr would have put them in a situation where the best they could do during free agency would be somewhere in the ballpark of $15 million in cap room, barring retirements or pay cuts for some veterans, while needing to sign a starting QB to replace Carr and fill other holes on the team. They would have designated him for a post June 1 release in this scenario but they would not have opened up cap room until June which is long after free agency is done. Quite frankly Carr had the leverage to turn down every possible scenario that involved him not earning $40 million this year.
If the Saints opted for the maximum contract restructure than Carr’s cap number in 2026 will rise to $69.2 million and the cost to release him on the cap would be in the ballpark of $59.7 million. If they only saved $30 million on the cap this year then the numbers will be $68.9 million on the cap and $58.7 million. We will use the maximum conversion as an estimate until we can confirm the actual numbers and adjust accordingly.
The Saints cap situation should not be as bleak in 2026 which is when they can do more of a roster reset. Relative to the rest of the league they are not in great shape (they rank around 25th in projected cap room), but should have enough wiggle room to begin a roster makeover that should have started three years ago. How much they spend on free agents in 2025 to compromise that flexibility is anyone’s guess but this is a team that needs to hit a home run in the draft in the worst way. The Saints won 5 games last year and are 14-13 with Carr as a starter the last two years.