Saints get cap flexibility in the one way they never wanted to

After kicking their financial problems down the road for years, it's finally catching up to the New Orleans Saints. The front office has a bushel of work to do this offseason to address this, and they've wasted no time getting started. However, it came at the expense of their most impactful players.

Per Over The Cap's Jason Fitzgerald, the Saints and Ryan Ramczyk have agreed to a restructured contract, clearing $16.7 million in cap space for 2025. Albeit providing New Orleans with much-needed fiscal relief, the revised pact effectively ushers the longtime franchise right tackle into retirement.

Saints attempt to dig themselves out of salary cap hell cost them stud RT Ryan Ramczyk

Losing Ramczyk stings. Since entering the league in 2017, he's been one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL when healthy. His presence up front has been essential to New Orleans' scoring unit, illustrated by three All-Pro First or Second Team nods in seven seasons.

Alas, injuries have been an issue for Ramczyk in the back nine of a successful career. He's appeared in 38 of 68 possible regular-season games since 2021. Moreover, the 30-year-old missed the entire 2024 campaign due to the timing of his placement on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list.

As Fitzgerald notes, many expected Ramczyk to hang up the cleats, but that doesn't make it any better for the Saints. Nonetheless, the stalwart blocker ostensibly gave the organization one last parting gift on his way out as a thank-you for their seven-year run together.

Ramczyk willingly forwent the $18 million base salary he was slated for next year, reducing his salary to the veteran's minimum of $1.255 million. The Saints can now designate him as a post-June 1 cut, splitting a $23.066 million dead cap hit for 2025 across the next two seasons. It's a sizable transaction that New Orleans desperately needed, though it cost them a valuable asset.

Even after Ramczyk's revised pact, the Saints are still "approximately $50 million over the 2025 salary cap," according to Fitzgerald. That's more than twice the amount of the next-closest team, signaling that this may be the beginning of a series of tough decisions.