This is a desperate season for the Saints, making it inconvenient for them to be off to an 0-3 start.
But they’ve added to their 2016 salary cap issues with their latest bid to create some short-term room.
According to Field Yates of ESPN, the Saints turned $5.2 million of Brees’ base salary into a signing bonus, which created $2.6 million in cap space now. That pushes his 2016 cap value to $30 million.
Coupled with the continued hits from the Junior Galette deal and others (over $12 million in dead money next year), and the Saints are on the verge of a significant financial situation.
Of course, the cap could push to $160 million next year, up from the $143 million and change this year. But that’s still more than a quarter of it tied up in two guys, one of whom isn’t on the roster.