3 Saints who definitely won't be back in 2025 with pending rebuild after Marshon Lattimore trade

The week of reckoning continued for the New Orleans Saints on Tuesday. Just 24 hours after firing head coach Dennis Allen — and 48 hours after an embarrassing loss to Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers dropped them to 2-7 on the season — the team officially signaled that the rebuild was on, shipping star cornerback Marshon Lattimore and a fifth-round pick to the Washington Commanders in exchange for a third-, fourth- and sixth-rounder in next spring's NFL Draft.

This has been a long time coming for the Saints, who spent years kicking the financial can down the road under GM Mickey Loomis. There was no veteran the team couldn't overpay in free agency, no contract they couldn't restructure in the name of freeing up a little cap space, all in the name of building a team that hasn't seen so much as a single playoff game since 2020. The downside of robbing the future to pay the present is that eventually, the bill comes due, and that's where New Orleans finds itself now. While finally committing to the tank is the right thing for this franchise, its current cap sheet means that things are going to have to get worse before they get better, and Lattimore is hardly the only big name who'll be sent packing over the next few months.

3. OT Ryan Ramcyzk

Ramcyzk has been a great player when healthy for New Orleans, but deterioriating cartilage in his knee has held him out for the entirety of the 2024 season and may well threaten his career. If the Wisconsin product is forced into early retirement, it could save the Saints some $18 million in 2025 and another $15.2 million in 2026. But even if Ramcyzk decides to keep playing, it's simply untenable for New Orleans to bring him back next year.

Restructuring his deal would be malpractice. Given the dead cap number the Saints are already dealing with, adding to that future tab for a player who may or may not be healthy enough to be an effective; another injury would leave New Orleans on the hook for all of that money, making their financial straits even worse. And it's just not very likely that a player of Ramcyzk's age and injury history is going to be a key part of the next competitive Saints team. Expect Loomis (or whoever is running things next in New Orleans) to cut him at some point next offseason.

2. DE Cameron Jordan

Jordan is another retirement candidate, not because of injury but because he'll be 36 with a $20 million cap hit and has already begun slowly sliding down the Saints' pass-rush pecking order. Again, restructuring isn't an option: Jordan is only under contract through 2026, and it's hard to see him playing long enough to pay off that deferment. He's a franchise legend, but it's a sign of just how dire New Orleans' predicament has become that hoping he retires (or letting him go otherwise) is the wisest course of action. If Jordan wants to keep playing in 2025, the Saints can save $12.5 million in cap room by labeling him a post-June 1 cut.

1. QB Derek Carr

Here's the big one. Carr isn't the quarterback to take the Saints into a new era, and you just have to look at the current Chris Olave saga to realize how badly a lame-duck QB can hamstring an offense. Plus, even if the Saints did opt to restructure his contract, that would just kick the can down the road a little longer; Carr would still wind up being an issue in 2027 or 2028, when New Orleans might have a roster ready to contend but an aging and ineffective quarterback weighing down its cap sheet.

The only solution is to find a trade, and while that may be easier said than done for a passer who's set to turn 34 next spring and has alienated both teams he's been on in his career, that doesn't mean it's impossible. This is still the NFL, after all, and even mediocre quarterbacks are worth their weight in gold. If New Orleans was willing to attach draft capital to Carr's contract, a la the Brock Osweiler trade from a few years ago, they might be able to find a suitor either at the trade deadline or next spring. (Someone is bound to miss out in the draft or free agency and need a fallback plan, after all.) Whatever the team has to do to get that deal off its books, it should explore.