Saints make series of contract restructures ahead of free agency

With the league’s recent release of the new salary-cap numbers and the rapid approach of free agency and the draft, NFL teams are working to clear up cap space to help add significant talent to their rosters for the 2024 NFL season. The Saints made a number of moves recently to reflect this pattern.

New Orleans agreed to a restructured deal with defensive end Carl Granderson, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. The team converted a $9M roster bonus that Granderson was due into a signing bonus spread over a five-year period. The move reduced his cap hit in 2024 from $12.45M to $5.25M, freeing up $7.2M of cap space.

The team applied the same tactic to interior offensive lineman Cesar Ruiz‘s contract, per Pelissero, converting his $8M roster bonus into a signing bonus and adding a void year to the end of his deal. The result saw Ruiz’s cap number drop from $10.85M to $4.45M, freeing up $6.4M more of cap space.

One more time, the Saints got another player to sign a restructured deal this week. This time, star pass rusher Cameron Jordan agreed to convert $11.79M of his 2024 base salary into a signing bonus, according to Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football. Jordan’s base salary was reduced to $1.21M and the team cleared $9.43M of cap space as a result.

Granderson, Ruiz, and Jordan join quarterback Derek Carr, defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd and center Erik McCoy as Saints who have signed restructured deals to help clear cap space recently.

Here are a couple of other restructured deals from around the league:

• The Browns got in on the party, agreeing to a restructured deal with cornerback Denzel Ward, per Pelissero. Cleveland converted $14.2M of Ward’s base salary into a signing bonus and added a void year to the end of his contract. Ward’s 2024 salary is now $1.13M as a result, and the move cleared $11.36M of cap space for the upcoming league year.
• Finally, the Bills were the other team this week to work towards more cap space. Offensive guard Connor McGovern agreed to a reworked deal that would convert $4.68M of his 2024 base salary into a signing bonus and add two void years to the end of his contract, according to Pelissero. The restructure clears up $3.74M of cap space for Buffalo.