Saints had contractual right to restructure Derek Carr's contract

The Saints are doing what the Saints do, pretty much every March. They're turning a seemingly unfixable cap crunch into far smoother sailing.

Saturday's move to create $30.996 million in cap space was the result of the team exercising its absolute contractual right to convert all but $1.255 million of Carr's 2025 compensation into a signing bonus. Carr didn't agree to it; his agreement wasn't required.

That's $38.745 million ($40 million minus $1.255 million) divided by five (the number of years that it will be prorated) times four (the number of years that will be pushed forward).

The move adds $7.749 million to Carr's existing 2026 cap number of $61.458 million, pushing it to a whopping $69.207 million. But he's due to make $50 million next year. If/when (when) the Saints tear up the contract, those cap dollars will disappear.

They'll still have $46.221 million to absorb, at some point. Beyond the $19.207 million in dead money for 2026. That's $65.428 million in post-2025 dead money for the Saints, flowing directly from the Carr contract.

The only viable alternative was to cut Carr. He wasn't going to take less. He now gets $38.745 million right now, with another $1.255 million to come in 2025. If he stays with the Saints after 2026, it most likely won't be under the remaining terms of his current contract.