MOBILE, Ala. General manager Mickey Loomis acknowledged that this will be a “daunting” low season for the New Orleans Saints, who will likely have to replace Drew Brees as quarterback and could be nearly $ 100 million above the salary ceiling.
But Loomis made it clear that the Saints are not going into rebuild mode after winning the past four NFC South titles.
“Listen, we have a great roster. And I can’t foresee a circumstance where we won’t say, ‘Man, we’re going to do everything we can to win – win now and compete for a championship,'” Loomis said during video conference with the media while attending the Senior Bowl.
He did not go into much detail, saying that at this point in the calendar there are still “more unknowns than are known”, including:
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No official word yet on whether Brees will indeed retire as he takes time to decompress with his family after his twentieth season.
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No official word on how low the salary ceiling will fall after lost earnings from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The ceiling could drop to $ 175 million per team after it hit $ 198.2 million in 2020, although it could be higher to be.
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The Saints have not yet completed their internal player evaluations.
So it’s too early to say whether the Saints will try to re-contract pending free agents like quarterback Jameis Winston, security Marcus Williams, defensive end Trey Hendrickson, defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins, and tight end Jared Cook – or whether they’ll have the market for an expensive QB like Matthew Stafford or others that become available through trade.
“All that evaluation and what happens with it remains to be seen,” said Loomis. “We love [quarterback Taysom Hill]. We love Jameis. We liked what they did for us. But as with any position, we will have a lot of discussion for the next two weeks. “
Under ESPN’s roster management system, the Saints are currently projected to have $ 277.8 million in salary ceilings for 2021, with just 43 salaries on the roster. However, they can save at least $ 13.5 million in cap space – and possibly more – when Brees retires. And they’ve been one of the most aggressive teams in the NFL for years when it comes to pushing the maximum cost into future seasons. So they can keep doing that if they want to keep as much of the current roster intact as possible.
For years, it seemed like the Saints would “ catch up ” to the salary ceiling and maybe go into rebuilding mode when Brees retired. But then they reloaded a roster of championships around him with great concept classes in 2016 and 2017 with stars like receiver Michael Thomas, receding Alvin Kamara, cornerback Marshon Lattimore, offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk, Williams, Hendrickson and Rankins.
A major decision facing the Saints is whether to renew free agents like Lattimore, Hill and offensive tackles Ramczyk and Terron Armstead pending 2022. Another would be whether they would consider blockbuster trades to free up cap space and add design choices, as they did with stars Jimmy Graham and Brandin Cooks in the past.
“Look, it will certainly be a challenge,” Loomis said of the salary cap. And yet I don’t want to speculate on how challenging it will be until we have a better understanding of what will become available – not just for this year, but even for the year after. So I can’t really answer that question any other way than “Yes, it will be daunting. I think it will be daunting for most teams in our league.”