The New Orleans Saints are in a dire situation. After being eliminated from the playoffs fans in the Big Easy are in for something not so easy. A rebuild. The Saints that they have come to know and love will look dramatically different in the next few years for one major reason… The Saints are currently projected to be over the 2021 salary cap by 112 MILLION DOLLARS. There will obviously be plenty of moves made and the cap room will be an ever shape-shifting sum that rises and falls like a meme stock. Make no mistake though, the Saints are in deep shit and even after dismantling their team it will be tough financially to field a competitive roster.

There is about to be a fire sale in town and it is gonna get worse before it gets better. Now there are cuts that the Saints can make, but there is so much dead cap money that will be tied up that it is almost counterintuitive. If the Saints are without Brees next year that would free up $25 million in savings after dead cap. It’s a help, but far from the finish line. Here are some of the biggest savings the Saints can make:

Kwon Alexander: 13.2 mil savings if cut post June 1st.

Ryan Ramczyk: 11.1 mil savings if cut post June 1st.

Marshon Lattimore: 10.2 mil savings if cut post June 1st.

Cam Jordan: 13.9 mil savings if cut post June 1st.

Janoris Jenkins: 10 mil savings if cut post June 1st.

Michael Thomas: 9.8 mil if released post June 1st

Jared Cook: 9.1 mil if cut after June 1st.

Emmanuel Sanders: 6 mil savings if cut post June 1st.

Now… if you did ALL of that you would get really close, but remember you would STILL need to make room for the replacement players. This is another reason why even without Drew Brees the Saints would not be major players in the QB market. Of course, there are plenty of ways New Orleans can get creative. They can convert salary into a bonus and spread the cap hit over multiple years. No matter what though they need spending power, which means other than the names you see on the list above the Saints may part ways with other players that you would not expect.

Here’s what I predict. Teams will call N.O. and offer to take large salaries of one player off their hands in exchange for New Orleans throwing in a draft pick OR another player they covet. Teams will be able to straight up buy draft picks off the Saints if they have cap room. This wouldn’t be the first time. The Miami Dolphins previously acquired Aqib Talib and a 5th round pick for their 7th round pick and inheriting Talib’s salary. Talib didn’t even have to move. He never set foot in the Dolphins facility and it was just a way for L.A. to offload his salary and for Miami to buy a draft pick. There will be a lot of change happening in the Big Easy this offseason. No one knows the end result, but we do know that Who Dat nation will have to learn a lot of new names for the 2021 season.