REPORT: Saints Restructure Marshon Lattimore’s Salary, Free Up 2024 Cap Space
Adding to the holiday season festivities, an annual tradition like none other is already under way. The New Orleans Saints are an estimated $76 million over the 2024 salary cap, per OverTheCap.com. An amount that those in the know will we as small potatoes considering the team’s recent overages.
Despite a more manageable situation at hand, the Saints did not wait long to start reducing the money in the 2024 books. Per ESPN’s Field Yates, New Orleans has restructured the base salary of star cornerback Marshon Lattimore. The move chops his $15 million base to just over $1.2 million, the veteran minimum for his time in the league. This happens by converting. Large chunk ($13.79 million) into an option bonus, which spreads that amount in equal parts over the next five seasons.
An option bonus is much like a signing bonus but instead of it kicking in immediately, the money becomes guaranteed as a later date. Which may explain why this action was done so well ahead of the game by the Saints.
That means New Orleans will now save $11.032 million in 2024, starting to work their way toward cap compliance. Usually the organization wait until a little later in the off-season to begin this work, but getting a head start is not necessarily indicative of anything.
What it does do though is put to bed some of the specious musings around Lattimore’s future with the team. This restructure, being that it pushes money into future years, all but solidifies that Lattimore will not be traded this off-season.
The Saints will still have a lot to do when it comes to the cap. With the 2024 salary limits expected to be announced this month, it is unclear what their exact overage is at this time. But it should not be much of a challenge to get below the limit.
With players such as running back Alvin Kamara, linebacker Demario Davis, and quarterbacks Derek Carr and Taysom Hill holding base salaries of $10+ million and offensive linemen Cesar Ruiz and Erik McCoy being among the additional players with large roster bonuses, New Orleans will be cap compliant easily by the March deadline. For which there is little rush. But nothing wrong with getting started a little early.
