The New Orleans Saints are in an awkward place as a franchise. New Orleans is starting a new era under head coach Kellen Moore. However, they are saddled with an aging quarterback and a terrible salary cap situation after years of cavalier spending. The Saints made a roster on Saturday that should help the team make a few moves this offseason.
The Saints restructured Derek Carr’s contract, which ties him to the team through at least the 2025 NFL season, according to ESPN’s Katherine Terrell. The details about that restructure paint an interesting future for the Saints organization.
New Orleans created almost $31 million in cap space in 2025 by restructuring Carr’s contract. This was a necessary move to become cap compliant and create space to add players this offseason.
The Saints converted Carr’s $30 million base salary and $10 million guaranteed roster bonus into a signing bonus. This pushed money into the future and lowered his 2025 cap figure to just $20.4 million.
However, the restructure also increased Carr’s cap hit to $69.2 million. This almost guarantees that the Saints will have to make a tough decision about Carr just one year from now.
On one hand, this was a necessary move for the Saints to stay competitive this offseason. However, it feels like New Orleans eventually needs to pay for their irresponsible spending.
Perhaps the Saints may finally bite the bullet during the 2026 NFL offseason.
Saints had a wandering eye before Derek Carr contract restructure
The Saints may have considered getting out of Carr’s contract this offseason.
One other nugget from Terrell’s reporting at ESPN was how Carr was open to testing the market in 2025.
“Several NFL sources believe that Carr was open to testing the market in recent weeks, possibly filling a void with a quarterback-needy team before free agency, but the Saints showed no outward desire to trade or cut him. Multiple teams in the quarterback market were made aware of this in recent weeks, the sources said. Carr told ESPN in January that he wouldn’t take a pay cut,” Katherine Terrell of ESPN reported.
It is interesting to compare this report with previous reporting about Carr refusing a pay cut. Especially following Carr agreeing to a restructured contract with the Saints.
It is easy to see the appeal from Carr’s perspective. There are several QB-needy teams who could pay big money for a guy like Carr this offseason.
Unfortunately for him, the Saints are content to keep him as a bridge quarterback to start the Kellen Moore era.
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