Salary Cap set at $224.8 million

[Pickett's Platoon]

Yeah I'd say Pierre sucks even more cock than Witherspoon.

We need to get the fuck off of this strange obsession w/ tall CB's.

99% of them can't cover shit.

I hope to Christ we don't draft Porter Jr, as he'll get smoked like a crack pipe behind the corner store in the NFL.

Funny thing about Pierre and Witherspoon is that they played roughly the same amount of snaps but Pierre was way better in pass coverage.

Witherspoon, 248 snaps, gave up 22 catches on 29 targets, 75.9% for 248 yards, 4 TDs, and 1 INT for a passer rating of 126.1

Pierre, 260 snaps, gave up 13 catches on 31 targets, 41.9% for 181 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT for a passer rating of 58.7. Pierre in the same sample size gave up way less catches and TDs by far. And Pierre plays special teams, had 196 snaps, Witherspoon is a total non factor on special teams.

Pierre is going to be a target for some NFL teams, because tall CBs that can play special teams aren't that easy to find. Pierre should be a priority to sign along with Sutton after cutting both Witherspoon and Jackson.

^Great comment, Scunge.

This is what my eyes told me this past season, as well.

If we bring back WJ3 and/or Spoon (at any costs above $2M/yr) before resigning Sutton and Pierre our HC/FO is out of their minds.

Witherspoon was playing with a torn hammy most of that time, dillholes.

Still, he sucks the tranny cock, just not quite as much as Pierre (when healthy).

[yygy]

Jackson is interesting. He seems to be part of their long-standing pattern of bringing in lower tier guys so they don’t need to overdraft the need.

This is a really good draft for CBs right where Steelers are in the draft.

Maybe Jackson pans out both with health and contract they keep him and still go CB early.

As I mentioned I believe they are actually close to a great D backfield.

I’d also like to see Kazee back for some of those single high looks. He has some ballhawk in him.

They really need to load up for those QBR heavy afc teams. They’re going nowhere if they can’t counter them plus score

[Scunge]

I agree that the secondary can be a real strength, but the Steelers have to make the right decisions.

They have to correctly pick who to resign, who to cut and who to let go.

Resign Cam Sutton, James Pierre and Terrell Edmunds.

Cut William Jackson, Ahkello Witherspoon and Arthur Maulet.

Allow Damonte Kazee to leave in free agency

So, you have this list in the secondary:

Minkah Fitzpatrick
Terrell Edmunds
Miles Killebrew
Tre Norwood
Cam Sutton
Levi Wallace
James Pierre

Then I would double dip in this year's draft. I think this draft is deep. I would love for them to take a CB in round 1, get that elite prospect, I think they have a good chance of taking the 2nd ranked CB. Then I would like to see the Steelers take a Safety/slot CB type in round 3 or 4.

Imagine if they got say Cam Smith at 17, or traded down 4 or 5 spots, picked up an extra 3rd, and was able to still get Cam Smith and with that extra 3rd round pick were able to spend it on that S/NickelBack, say one of the two remaining Illinois prospects, Quan Martin or Sydney Brown, if they slide that far.

You add those two rookies to our secondary (1st and 3rd rounder) and that goes a long way to solidifying the secondary.

[Dan Smith--BYU]

49ers to spend half of that cap on any backup QB who has ever had a win. Will need about eight based on recent history.

[jebrick]

Jackson is interesting. He seems to be part of their long-standing pattern of bringing in lower tier guys so they don’t need to overdraft the need.

This is a really good draft for CBs right where Steelers are in the draft.

Maybe Jackson pans out both with health and contract they keep him and still go CB early.

As I mentioned I believe they are actually close to a great D backfield.

I’d also like to see Kazee back for some of those single high looks. He has some ballhawk in him.

They really need to load up for those QBR heavy afc teams. They’re going nowhere if they can’t counter them plus score

Jackson's problem is that he is a press man CB. He is crap in zone coverage. How much press man do the Steelers play? how much zone coverage?

[yygy]

Steelers are in man coverage about 50% of the time I saw one week at 58%. I’ve even seen 60% they’re under 50% sometimes too.

Of course you need the right players like a Joe Haden or Steven Nelson was pretty good. Levi Wallace is also pretty good. Cam Sutton is I’d say a shade below that.

I’d like I said I feel like they’re also close to getting really good by adding just one more player. That would be an early round CB.

Back to Kazee I like the player and hope they can keep him. Yes he’s another FS type in while paying a backup FS decently doesn’t seem to make sense there’s another way to get him on the field. That’s the dime. But instead of bringing on maulet or Pierre why not bring on another safety more often? They started to do these three safety packages more and that’s the way to get Kazee on the field.

Kazee is your single high, minkah can freelance to an extent and that pushes Edmunds up into the box where he’s best

[stillthere]

Witherspoon was suckling from the tranny cock most all of the time he was on the field, which wasn't very often.

Wallace and Sutton played well, but as has been mentioned we're probably losing Sutton. That leaves us w/ one boundary corner.

We have Maulet, Norwood and hopefully Kazee that can play slot.

I think we need to draft a CB and a WR in those top few picks.

witherspoon got burned for a couple big plays 1v1 with AJ Brown, but he was in much better position than the 49er DBs were against brown this past sunday when Hurts kept missing. I don’t much care about allowing great throws and great catches to succeed.

Question would be, if instead we had assigned Pierre to lock up Brown 1 on 1, do you believe we would have been better off? Answer in my head is “we would never uave considered that assignment, because we wouldn’t have thought Pierre (or even wallace) would have stood a chance.”

Yeah I'd say Pierre sucks even more cock than Witherspoon.

We need to get the fuck off of this strange obsession w/ tall CB's.

99% of them can't cover shit.

I hope to Christ we don't draft Porter Jr, as he'll get smoked like a crack pipe behind the corner store in the NFL.

The one thing with Pierre that cannot be taught or coached is his length and height at the position. The kid has grown as a player for 2 years now. It is time for him to take the next step now.

[stillthere]

Is it possible the Saints could get so screwed as to not be able to get under the cap? What would happen then?

What happens if an NFL team goes over the salary cap?

Abiding by the NFL's salary cap from year to year is always a balancing act and general managers don't make any decisions lightly. The NFL maintains a hard cap, and teams have to stay under it at all times.

If a team goes over the salary cap, they will face penalties for violating or going around the salary cap regulations. The teams will be fined up to $5 million for each violation. The franchise can also have contracts canceled and lose their draft picks.

If the maximum salary is a ceiling, then the minimum is a floor, and the organizations must also spend the minimum. If a team violates the salary floor regulations, they are not subjected to fines, but they will have to pay the remaining amount needed directly to players.

This has forced many cap casualties this season as the teams scramble to get under the cap ceiling.

[jebrick]

Saints can't draft players if they can't pay the contracts.

The Salary cap is so flexible, I expect the Saints to pull some spreadsheet shenanigans and be $15M under before the draft

[Mick]

Saints can't draft players if they can't pay the contracts.

The Salary cap is so flexible, I expect the Saints to pull some spreadsheet shenanigans and be $15M under before the draft

i think you underestimate their issues a bit. E.g., their top 14 cap hit players have more dead money than salary this year. Which is to say, if they cut any of their cap relevant players, their issues get worse. Sure they can do some restructures, but most of those deals are already in balloon years, because they were designed to buy Payton a championship window with Brees after the historic saints 2017 draft class. You can’t really restructure toward the end of a contract, as the whole point of restructuring is pushing cap hits back farther into the existing years of a contract.

[Pickett's Platoon]

witherspoon got burned for a couple big plays 1v1 with AJ Brown, but he was in much better position than the 49er DBs were against brown this past sunday when Hurts kept missing. I don’t much care about allowing great throws and great catches to succeed.

Question would be, if instead we had assigned Pierre to lock up Brown 1 on 1, do you believe we would have been better off? Answer in my head is “we would never uave considered that assignment, because we wouldn’t have thought Pierre (or even wallace) would have stood a chance.”

Yeah I'd say Pierre sucks even more cock than Witherspoon.

We need to get the fuck off of this strange obsession w/ tall CB's.

99% of them can't cover shit.

I hope to Christ we don't draft Porter Jr, as he'll get smoked like a crack pipe behind the corner store in the NFL.

The one thing with Pierre that cannot be taught or coached is his length and height at the position. The kid has grown as a player for 2 years now. It is time for him to take the next step now.

Length and height is a detriment to most CB's. 6' is about the max they have been able to be and still stay w/ receivers on average.

Tall ones are the exception, not the rule.

[jebrick]

They are screwed with Cameron Jordan. THey can restructure Lattamore, Ramcyck, Peat, Kamara, and Hill and save about $42M ( according to Over THe Cap) They should cut Thomas post June-1st and save $1.8M I do not think he wants to play football anymore.

Restruct McCoy saving another $8M. Cut Roby post June 1st and save $3.8M. Cut Tre'Quan Smith (Post 6/1) saving $2.9M

All of that and I did not add that much to the Dead money ( k. $11M for Thomas but it will be a win in the long run).

[DP39]

They are screwed with Cameron Jordan. THey can restructure Lattamore, Ramcyck, Peat, Kamara, and Hill and save about $42M ( according to Over THe Cap) They should cut Thomas post June-1st and save $1.8M I do not think he wants to play football anymore.

Restruct McCoy saving another $8M. Cut Roby post June 1st and save $3.8M. Cut Tre'Quan Smith (Post 6/1) saving $2.9M

All of that and I did not add that much to the Dead money ( k. $11M for Thomas but it will be a win in the long run).

Yes, NO is screwed cap-wise. You can only cut 2 players and designate them post 6/1 cuts -- I think.

WR M. Thomas doesn't want to play football anymore....but he still wants to steal paychecks. He's proven that over the last 3+ years.

[Pabst]

They are screwed with Cameron Jordan. THey can restructure Lattamore, Ramcyck, Peat, Kamara, and Hill and save about $42M ( according to Over THe Cap) They should cut Thomas post June-1st and save $1.8M I do not think he wants to play football anymore.

Restruct McCoy saving another $8M. Cut Roby post June 1st and save $3.8M. Cut Tre'Quan Smith (Post 6/1) saving $2.9M

All of that and I did not add that much to the Dead money ( k. $11M for Thomas but it will be a win in the long run).

I believe DP is correct and teams are only allowed 2 post-June 1 cuts.

Having said that.....According to the overthecap calculator, if you do every single thing mentioned in your post (plus cut Will Lutz), the Saints are *still* over the Salary cap to the tune of around $500k.

Also, here's what has been added to 2024:
$14.18m for Michael Thomas
$1.76m for Bradley Roby
$1m for Tre'Quan Smith
----------------------------------------------
~$17m in dead money for players cut in 2023

Restructures are as follows:
$2.68m for Lattimore
$2.58m for Ramczyk
$2.13m for Peat
$1.98m for Kamara
$1.81m for Hill
$2.00m for McCoy
-----------------------------------------------
$13.2m added to the 2024 cap for restructures

Add all that up and it's just a hair over $30m in dead money going to 2024, which means the Saints are now over a projected $250m cap next season already.

[SteelPro]

Saints can't draft players if they can't pay the contracts.

The Salary cap is so flexible, I expect the Saints to pull some spreadsheet shenanigans and be $15M under before the draft

I guess if you were really that tight against the cap and your situation was so dire that you couldn’t even afford to pay your draft picks you’d just trade them all for future picks.

[jebrick]

They are screwed with Cameron Jordan. THey can restructure Lattamore, Ramcyck, Peat, Kamara, and Hill and save about $42M ( according to Over THe Cap) They should cut Thomas post June-1st and save $1.8M I do not think he wants to play football anymore.

Restruct McCoy saving another $8M. Cut Roby post June 1st and save $3.8M. Cut Tre'Quan Smith (Post 6/1) saving $2.9M

All of that and I did not add that much to the Dead money ( k. $11M for Thomas but it will be a win in the long run).

Yes, NO is screwed cap-wise. You can only cut 2 players and designate them post 6/1 cuts -- I think.

WR M. Thomas doesn't want to play football anymore....but he still wants to steal paychecks. He's proven that over the last 3+ years.

You can only designate 2 players cut as post 6/1 cuts. They can cut more people post 6/1 but they need at least $5M to draft any players ( unless they trade away the picks).

They can expend some of these player if they want and move/spread the cap hit out.

[yygy]

Great article on Kazee and some unbelievable numbers:

https://www.si.com/nfl/steelers/allstee ... h-steelers

To give you an idea of just how dominant the Steelers were when Kazee was on the field, San Francisco's defense was the top-ranked unit in 2022 with an EPA/play of -0.112, per RBSDM.com. With Kazee on the field, the Steelers were literally twice as effective than the best defense in all of football, an astounding impact for a player that cost the Steelers basically nothing this past season.

Without Kazee on the field, Pittsburgh looked more like a bottom-five defense in EPA/play.

Like I said, lock up Kazee. I almost went as far as to claim he is actually a more valuable piece of the defense than either Sutton or Edmunds. But they all have a role here.

I feel like for the first time Steelers could move out from the very long shadow cast by LeBeau ie the pass rush covers up a crappy secondary. Steelers really are close to being on the front foot with their defensive backfield.

They need that one premium pick still that perimeter CB. Then they’re ready to have a go. Will be fun to watch the swagger instead of the shame

[Pabst]

I'd love to have Kazee back, but it should probably be note that he barely played 50% of defensive snaps (and he only appeared in 9 games). He'll also be turning 30 over the summer, while Edmunds and Sutton both played >90% and are 26 and 28, respectively