It was always going to come to this. Andrus Peat’s contract with the New Orleans Saints is their last in-house salary cap hurdle, which is kind of poetic given how frustrating that deal has been over the years. Few Saints starters have missed as many games with injuries as Peat while turning in up-and-down game tape and ranking among the team’s top earners. Of course this is their final challenge to deal with.
Right now, Peat has the highest salary cap hit on the team for the 2023 season at $18,371,000. The Saints have two options in front of them: restructuring Peat’s hefty $11.8 million base salary into a new signing bonus and committing to him for another year or two, or releasing him (a trade is possible, but unlikely, given his injury history and the contract value). A restructure would save more than $7.9 million for 2023, so that’s the likeliest outcome.
If the Saints release Peat outright, they’ll save just $1.3 million against the 2023 salary cap while being on the hook for a staggering $16.9 million in dead money. So that isn’t a realistic option.
If they were to release him with a post-June 1 designation, Peat would become a free agent and have the ability to sign with a new team right away, but the Saints would still keep him on the books at that $18.3 million figure until June. They would have to wait until free agency is over and the draft is behind them to get any savings, but they would eventually get $11.8 million back.
The Saints are already under the salary cap; we’re still waiting to see new cap hits for Jameis Winston and Michael Thomas to know by how much, but New Orleans should be in the clear by several million dollars. Something has to give with Peat’s contract before they can shift focus to the free agent market. If the team plays its cards right, they can quickly become big spenders.
