New Orleans Saints Continue Cutting Salary Cap Overages By Restructuring Nathan Shepherd's Contract

The New Orleans Saints continue to shed cap by restructuring defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd's salary and freeing up a small but meaningful sum.

NEW ORLEANS -- The salary cap moves keep coming for the New Orleans Saints. The team was originally expected to be around $83 million over the NFL's salary cap, but with the recently announced spike in the league's spending allotment hitting north of $255 million, things got even easier for New Orleans. However, moves still need to be made.

New Orleans Saints defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd (93) against the Detroit Lions / Dec 3, 2023; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd (93) against the Detroit Lions during the first half at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

After restructuring the contracts for starting quarterback Derek Carr and center Erik McCoy, the Saints added another small sum of savings on Sunday morning. Per ESPN's Field Yates, New Orleans restructured the 2024 base salary of defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd. The original report suggests that the savings would be "north of $3 million", however if the math works out conventionally, it will actually be just north of $2 million. But ever cent counts.

Along with the two previously mentioned moves, the Saints will have cut their cap deficit by around $33 million. That should put them at just at or under $40 million over the limit for now.

At 30 years old and entering just his seventh year in the league, this was another contract that made a ton of sense to restructure. Shepherd's $4.1 million base salary was already guaranteed in 2024 anyway, so the Saints effectively don't change any of their accounting in the long run for this move aside from how and when it hits the books.

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Here is the likely breakdown of how this contract was restructured and what it means for New Orleans. We will see if things worked out differently somehow in order to save a larger sum as originally reported.

Original 2024 base salary: $4,100,000
2024 signing bonus prorate: $1,000,000

New 2024 base salary: $1,125,000 (veteran minimum for players with fewer than 7 accrued seasons)
2024 signing bonus prorate: $1,000,000

Total restructure amount: $2,975,000
Prorate amount over 5 years: $595,000

New 2024 total charge: $2,720,000 (new 2024 base + prorate amount)
Savings from original amount: $2,380,000

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NFL Salary Cap Set for 2024, Saints Have Less to Trim Now