Saints Will Benefit From NFL Salary Cap Increase

After a pretty steep decline in the NFL salary cap, things are on the rise for 2022. Naturally, that means the Saints are going to benefit from the increase.

John Hendrix | Dec 6, 2021

The NFL's salary cap is expected to rise and hit $208 million in 2022, which is great news for the New Orleans Saints. Due to COVID, the cap went down to $182.5 million in 2021, which halted a multi-year steady increase starting in 2013. New Orleans was in a big 'hole' going into last year's offseason, but still managed to weave their way out of a $100 million deficit and spend some money in the process.

Currently, you'll see that the Saints are going to be some $60-70 million over going into 2022, depending on where you look. However, there are plenty of ways for them to maneuver it and then be competitors in free agency, something that they are going to have to do to get better. We'll look at some of those situations and contracts towards the end of the season, but for now, know that the team has a $11.5 million dead cap charge to deal with from Drew Brees.

More good news for the front office is that the salary cap is also supposed to increase for 2023, so this could really allow New Orleans the luxury of getting creative with some of their player contracts and situations. Immediate priorities would shift to retaining someone like Marcus Williams, but the team could also use the franchise tag on him to not let him get away.

Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton are going to be tasked with improving some key areas for the team going into next season, and no matter what, they've always been able to make things work and attract new players. Let's just hope the attention goes to the areas with deficiencies, but we also have to see how things play out in the offseason.

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Published Dec 6, 2021

JOHN HENDRIX

I officially started covering the New Orleans Saints & other NFL topics in 2011. My work has been featured on various outlets over the years. I worked closely with Skyhorse Publishing in Fall 2018 to update the book, Tales From the New Orleans Saints Sidelines, which filled in all Saints material from the 2013-2017 seasons. Prior to joining Saints News Network, I served as the Managing Editor of SB Nation's Canal Street Chronicles for 3.5 years, and before that with FanSided's Who Dat Dish as the Managing Editor for several years. I have also had experiences of being a freelance Saints reporter for The Sun Herald in Biloxi, MS and a contributing writer for WDSU, a local NBC TV station in New Orleans. I have appeared on a vast amount of TV and Radio shows, both nationally and locally. For tips, comments, or suggestions, please contact me at johnhendrix@saintsnews.net