3 Offseason Moves the New Orleans Saints Must Make this Offseason
As the NFL offseason officially begins for all 32 teams, we will examine what each franchise must do in free agency and the NFL Draft to emerge a better, more complete team when the 2025 season kicks off in September.
The can can only be kicked down the road so long, and so far, before it clangs into the wall of consequences.
So it goes, for the New Orleans Saints.
If there ever was an argument for the salary cap being fake, it would be the past half-decade of Saints football.
With another NFL Scouting Combine underway and the new NFL league year set to open on March 12, expect the Saints' annual tradition of restructuring deals and converting salary to signing bonuses to begin again.
Good luck to new head coach Kellen Moore in navigating his way through salary cap hell.
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Here’s a full breakdown of the Saints’ assets to rebuild with this offseason, and three moves that could turn things around in New Orleans.
New Orleans Saints Cap Space
Just as they seem to every March, the New Orleans Saints have the league's worst salary cap situation. They will likely spend the next several weeks trying to work around it.
Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis has to find a way to get cap compliant by the time free agency begins, despite the Saints currently sitting $52.5 million over the cap.
The biggest problem for Loomis this time around is that New Orleans has reworked, restructured, and re-done so many of the contracts of key veterans on the roster that there’s limited flexibility this time around which could look to a flurry of draconian roster cuts as the new league year approaches.
For New Orleans, the ultimate paradox might be how to rebuild, cut costs, and still play Derek Carr at quarterback, more on that later …
New Orleans Saints NFL Draft Picks
Fortunately for Loomis and the Saints, New Orleans is picking inside the top-10 picks in this April’s NFL Draft, and should be able to add some young—and affordable talent to the roster.
Round 1, pick No. 9 overall
Round 2, pick No. 40 overall
Round 3, pick No. 71 overall
Round 3, pick No. 93 overall (via Washington Commanders)
Round 4, pick No. 111 overall
Round 4, pick No. 130 overall (via Washington Commanders)
Round 6, pick No. 186 overall
Round 7, pick No. 254 overall
Three Moves the New Orleans Saints Must Make this Offseason
Release Derek Carr
There’s very little getting around this; keeping Derek Carr on this roster is prohibitive both when it comes to rebuilding and when it comes to trying to field a roster that gets under the salary cap.
Carr accounts for 18.7% of the Saints’ salary cap obligations for the 2025 season, and in a perfect world New Orleans would wait to trade the 33-year-old quarterback until after June 1 when they would shave $40 million off the cap, they don’t have the luxury of waiting.
If the Saints trade Carr before June 1, New Orleans would incur a $40 million dead-money charge while only freeing up $11.32 million in new cap space.
Conversely, releasing Carr with a post-June 1 designation creates $30 million in cap space, while triggering a $21.45 million dead-money charge for the upcoming season.
It is less than ideal for a first-year head coach to inherit such an untenable and unknown quarterback situation, but Carr’s contract is an albatross that stands in the way of a long-overdue rebuild.
Release Taysom Hill
This one is a no-brainer.
Hill is the oldest skill-position player on the Saints’ roster, and has suddenly been accumulating major injuries over the past several seasons, and while he was one of the most versatile weapons during New Orleans’ most recent run of success, his best contribution moving forward will be the cap space that moving on from him creates.
New Orleans can create $10 million in cap space for the 2025 season if the Saints release him with a post-June 1 designation, which should be one of the first moves Loomis makes in the coming weeks.
Draft Texas A&M EDGE Shemar Stewart at No. 9
It’s easy to tear down a roster, and the Saints actually have the opportunity to clear upwards of $140 million by moving on from six players who will open the 2025 campaign over the age of 30.
But, it isn’t always easy to rebuild, especially without adding elite talent at premium positions. Fortunately for the Saints, they may have a decent shot at nabbing one of the premier pass rushers in this year’s class to anchor their front-seven makeover.
Texas A&M pass rusher Shemar Stewart, 6-foot-6 and 290 pounds, plays like he was shot of a cannon and wins at the point of attack thanks to his explosiveness and elite bend, produced 4.5 sacks across three seasons in College Station. Additionally, Pro Football Focus credits Stewart with a career-high 33 quarterback pressures last season while awarding him an elite 88.2 run-defense grade.
Stewart’s versatility to stop the run on his way to rushing the passer gives him the chance in the right scheme— perhaps even new defensive coordinator Brandon Staley’s—to thrive as a building block caliber player.
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