General manager Mickey Loomis confessed this is going to be a”daunting” offseason for its New Orleans Saints, that will probably have to substitute Drew Brees at quarterback and may be near $100 million on the salary cap.
However, Loomis made it crystal clear that the Saints are not going into rebuilding mode after winning the previous four NFC South titles.
“Listen, we have a fantastic roster. And that I can not foresee a situation in which we are not going to say’Man, we are gonna do whatever we can to win — win right now and compete for a championship,'” Loomis said through a videoconference using the media while attending the Senior Bowl.
He did not get into many specifics, saying that there continue to be”much more unknowns than there are knowns” at this stage in the calendar, for example:
No official word yet on if Brees will really retire because he takes some time to decompress together with his household after his 20th season.
No official word on exactly how low the wages cap will fall after lost earnings in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The cap could fall as low as $175 million each group after it had been $198.2 million in 2020, even though it might be greater.
The Saints haven’t yet completed their in-house participant ratings.
So it is too soon to say if the Saints will attempt to re-sign impending free agents like quarterback Jameis Winston, security Marcus Williams, defensive end Trey Hendrickson, defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins and tight wind Jared Cook — or even if they might get in the marketplace to get a pricey QB such as Matthew Stafford or some others that become accessible via commerce.
We enjoy Jameis. But just like every place, we are going to really have a great deal of debate during the next week or 2.”
The Saints are now estimated to get $277.8 million in salary-cap prices for 2021 with only 43 salary on the roster, according to ESPN’s Roster Management System. And they’ve been among the most competitive teams in the NFL for many years in regards to pushing cap prices to future seasons. They can continue to do this if they wish to maintain up to their present roster intact as you can.
For many years, it appeared like the Saints could”catch up” with the salary cap and perhaps go into rebuilding mode if Brees retired.
1 big choice facing the Saints comprise if they wish to expand impending 2022 free agents such as Lattimore, Hill and offensive tackles Ramczyk and Terron Armstead. Another could be if they’d consider any blockbuster transactions to free up cap space and include draft selections such as they did with celebrities Jimmy Graham and Brandin Cooks previously.
“Look, for sure it is going to be hard,” Loomis said of their salary cap. “And I do not need to speculate about how hard it is likely to be until we have a better comprehension of what is likely to be accessible — not only for this season, but for the year later. So I can not really answer that question other than to say, yeah, it is likely to seem daunting. I believe that it’s likely to be daunting to get the vast majority of groups in our league.”
