MOBILE, Alabama – General manager Mickey Loomis has acknowledged that this will be a time of “discouraging season” for the New Orleans Saints, who will likely have to replace Drew Brees as defender and could exceed the salary cap of nearly 100 million. of dollars.
But Loomis has made it clear that the Saints will not go into rebuild mode after winning the last four NFC South titles.
“Listen, we have a great list. And I can’t predict a circumstance where we won’t say, “Man, we’re going to do everything we can to win – win now and compete for a championship,” Loomis said during a media video conference while attending Senior Bowl.
He did not go into much detail, saying that there are still “more unknowns than are known” at this time in the calendar, including:
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No official word on whether Brees will indeed retire, as he needs time to unwind with his family after the 20th season.
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No official word on how small the salary cap will be after the loss of revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The cap could drop to $ 175 million per team after it was $ 198.2 million in 2020 , although it could be higher.
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The Saints have not yet completed their internal evaluations of the players.
So it’s too early to say whether the Saints will try to sign pending free agents again, such as defender Jameis Winston, safety Marcus Williams, defensive end Trey Hendrickson, defensive forward Sheldon Rankins and tight end Jared Cook – or if he could enter the market for a QB at high prices, such as Matthew Stafford or any others that become commercially available.
“All these assessments and what is happening with them remain to be seen,” Loomis said. “We like [quarterback Taysom Hill]. We don’t like Jameis. We liked what they did for us. But, like any position, we will have many discussions in the next week or two. “
Currently, the saints are expected to have $ 277.8 million in salary payments for 2021, with only 43 salaries on the list, according to the ESPN List Management System. However, it could save at least $ 13.5 million in lid space – and possibly more – if Brees retires. And they’ve been one of the most aggressive teams in the NFL for years when it comes to pushing cap costs in the coming seasons. So they could continue to do that if they want to keep as much of the current list intact as possible.
For years, it seemed that the saints would “catch up” with the salary cap and could enter the mode of reconstruction whenever Brees withdrew. But then they reloaded around him a list of championship caliber with great draft courses in 2016 and 2017 that included stars like receiver Michael Thomas, runner Alvin Kamara, defender Marshon Lattimore, offensive striker Ryan Ramczyk, Williams, Hendrickson and Rankins.
A major decision facing the Saints is whether they want to expand pending free agents in 2022, such as Lattimore, Hill and the Ramczyk and Terron Armstead offensive attacks. Another thing would be if they were considering a blockbuster transaction to free up space for the cover and add projects, as they did with stars Jimmy Graham and Brandin Cooks in the past.
“Look, it’s definitely going to be a challenge,” Loomis said of the salary cap. “And yet I don’t want to speculate on how challenging it will be until we better understand what will be available – not just for this year, but even for next year. So I can’t really answer this question other than to say, yes, it will be discouraging. I think it will be discouraging for most teams in our league. “