Here's an interesting salary cap move from the New Orleans Saints on the eve of their 2026 regular season. Spotrac's Michael Ginnitti shared that the Saints restructured their contracts with a couple of veteran players -- kicking $6.2 million down the road for right guard Cesar Ruiz and deferring $4.12 million in cap costs
for nose tackle Davon Godchaux. NewOrleans.Football's Mike Triplett estimates that the Saints are under the 2026 salary cap by $5.3 million.It means that Ruiz will carry a $16.2 million salary cap hit in 2027, and with $15.7 million locked up through this restructure (and previous moves), the Saints would only save about $500,000 if they move on from him before June 1. Godchaux's contract runs out after this season, meaning
he'll live behind more than $6 million in dead money if the team doesn't re-sign him. The Saints don't have much dead money on the books in 2027 right now, but they're expected to take on more than $21.3 million between expiring deals with Alvin Kamara, Nathan Shepherd, Cameron Jordan. Any dollars going into that dead money pile can't be spent on players actually on the roster.
So why was this controversial? The Saints picked replacements for both Godchaux (Christen Miller, in Round 2) and Ruiz (Jeremiah Wright, Round 4) in this year's draft. Neither player met expectations last year. Godchaux was benched by the end of the season. Ruiz came up in trade talks at the deadline but the Saints didn't get an offer compelling enough to move off his contract. Now they're effectively stuck with him, unless they designate Ruiz a post-June 1 cut next offseason and are willing to wait until well after the 2027 draft to save any real cap space from it ($9.5 million).
But it was a necessary compromise. Because we've shifted gears and moved into the regular season, teams must count every player on their books against the salary cap -- not just the top 51 contracts, which was the case in the offseason. Between the 53 players on their active roster, 17 on the practice squad, and a handful of contracts on injured reserve, New Orleans needed the money. This doesn't mean a big swing like a Maxx Crosby trade or Michael Thomas reunion is coming. They just needed the flexibility to tweak the roster and sign tryouts in the months ahead.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints restructure their contracts with two controversial veterans
