No NFL team burns money like the New Orleans Saints.
With the release of running back C.J. Spiller on Tuesday, the Saints have now accumulated over $40 million in dead money on their 2016 salary cap. In other words, New Orleans is paying over a quarter of its 2016 cap money on players no longer on the roster.
The Saints lead the NFL in dead money—by a large margin—in both 2016 and over the last three seasons. The Cleveland Browns, who gutted their roster this past offseason, rank a distant second in dead money with $28 million in 2016.
The bad roster decisions in New Orleans continue to add up.
Spiller, who signed a four-year, $16 million deal with the Saints, will cost $4.5 million in dead money this season. He played fewer than 200 snaps in New Orleans, and he’s not alone.
Over $12 million of the Saints’ 2016 cap is currently being paid to linebacker Junior Galette, who hasn’t played in New Orleans since 2014. Another $16 or so million is tied up in cornerbacks Keenan Lewis and Brandon Browner and guard Jahri Evans.
The wasted money doesn’t just end in 2016. The Saints already have roughly $8 million in dead money counted against the 2017 salary cap, too. Spiller will cost another $2.5 million next year.
Bottom line: It’s hard to stay competitive in the NFL when such a high percentage of your spending dollars are being wasted. The Saints have swung and missed on too many player contracts, and when bad decisions are made, money goes up in flames. There’s huge sunk cost in keeping a bad but expensive player around, and there are severe salary cap ramifications when releasing a bad player with guaranteed money left on his deal.
Essentially, the Saints are playing the 2016 season with a salary cap of $11o million, while others teams are using the majority of the cap’s $155 million on players who are actually contributing every week.
It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for the Saints.
