The New Orleans Saints may be the only team in worse a worse salary cap situation than the Atlanta Falcons, but they’re making moves to shave nearly $40 Million from their cap.
Yesterday the Saints restructured the contract of wide receiver Michael Thomas saving nearly $9M from their cap.
The fifth year pro had over 1,000 yards in four of his first five seasons before missing much of 2020 with injury. Last season Thomas started only five games and had 40 catches for 438 yards without scoring a touchdown.
Ian Rapoport reported the deal on Twitter.
Even with the move, and others like it, the Saints are more than $25M over the cap.
The Falcons two biggest hits on their 2021 salary cap are Matt Ryan ($41M) and Julio Jones ($23M). A restructure could be on the table for Ryan and Jones, but because so much of their contract already included a hefty signing bonus, $46M and $25M respectively, a contract similar to Thomas’ is prohibitive.
The Falcons have already made several moves to address their cap situation including not resigning Keanu Neal and waiving Ricardo Allen.
Yesterday they Falcons announced that they had re-signed four of their own free agents including popular Pro-Bowl kicker Younghoo Koe.
