Getty Image / Jonathan Bachman
- The New Orleans Saints restructured a pair of contracts today
- These moves opened a bunch of cap space and should indicate they’ll get one important player back next season
- Read more BroBible articles here
The New Orleans Saints are in a truly miserable position when it comes to salary cap space for the 2022 NFL season. In fact, at the start of the offseason they were further over the cap than any other team in football.
According to Field Yates, the Saints made a pair of moves today in an effort to fix that cap situation.
Source: the Saints’ cap moves are underway, as they’ve converted $14.565M of Michael Thomas’ compensation for 2022 and $18,206,608 of OT Ryan Ramczyk’s compensation for 2022 into signing bonuses, creating $26.217M in cap space.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 26, 2022
Just about every NFL team seems to make moves like this throughout the offseason as they try to navigate the salary cap, but one part of this move in particular seems very significant.
Coming into this offseason, nobody really new what to expect for Michael Thomas’ future. Thomas has had a lot of issues over the last couple of seasons. First, he injured his ankle in week 1 of the 2020 season. Then, before he could even return from the injury, he was suspended by the team for throwing a punch at a teammate.
He was able to return from the injury in week 9, but would spend time on injured reserve because of that ankle later in the season. He returned for the playoffs, but then things really got messy. Thomas ended up needing surgery on the ankle, but waited until June to get it. The Saints were not happy about that decision. He didn’t end up playing a snap this year.
The Saints restructuring Thomas should mean that they plan for him to be a member of their team this coming season. That will be a welcome sight for whoever ends up playing quarterback for the Saints next season.
Taysom Hill, Jameis Winston, and Trevor Siemian all had to throw to a mediocre group of receivers last season and it clearly impacted the Saints offense. Even having Alvin Kamara, who is arguably the best receiving back in football, wasn’t enough to save them.
If Michael Thomas is finally fully healthy again, he will be a huge addition for the Saints next season.