Saints To Get More Cap Relief, the New Orleans Saints Agree To Rework Agreement With Starting Offensive Tackle The New Orleans Saints’ handling of Ryan Ramczyk’s contract appears to have been one of the most anticipated contract moves of the offseason.
NEW ORLEANS – There is no doubt about that. By now, the New Orleans Saints are well below the wage cap in advance of the deadline for the upcoming league year. Making many challenging choices was necessary to get there. especially in regards to players who were wounded or elderly. However, it appears that the Saints have come up with a clever solution to deal with those circumstances that not only frees up salary space but also treats the player fairly.
A revised contract has been agreed to between the Saints and starting right tackle Ryan Ramczyk, according to ESPN’s Field Yates. New Orleans released further information on the new agreement.Nick Underhill of football too. Through the agreement, Ramczyk’s base compensation will be reduced in exchange for a $6.5 million guarantee. In essence, it’s a salary cut with the opportunity to recoup a sizable amount through escalators. We can look at a recent agreement to get a better idea of how this one comes together.
Firstly, a “reworked deal” is often a bit different from a typical restructure. A restructure will take a larger portion of a player’s base salary and any additional bonuses (like roster, workout or option bonuses) and convert them to a signing bonus. The players lose no money this way and the same dollar amounts are paid out. However the team accounts for it in even payments for up to five years as opposed to taking the entire hit in that same year.
In a re-worked deal, often times a pay cut or even extension are included. An easy example is the recent reworked contract of linebacker Demario Davis. Intitially, Davis was a $10 million base salary and a $2 million roster bonus along with already existing prorates that would have equated to over an $18 million cap hit. Additionally, and very importantly, it was the last year of his deal.
The Saints and Davis decided on an extra year in 2025 with a percentage of guaranteed compensation as part of their rework. He took a new signing bonus of $7.7 million and a reduced basic salary of $1.3 million in return for the additional year and new guarantees, which reduced his cap hit in 2024. All in return for future assurances, a further year, more money overall, and of course support for his squad.
It looks like something similar could be expected for Ramczyk’s new deal. Originally the former Wisconsin Badger had no guarantees in his 2024 salary. That changed with this new deal. With there also being escalators (much like wide receiver Michael Thomas’ 2023 deal) he has the chance to regain the upside of his contract. That escalators could be attached to play time, team success and even team and player accolades such as Pro Bowl nominations and All-Pro selections.
Here is what the final numbers for 2024 could look like, barring any additional changes or money movement that have no yet come to light. Keep in mind Ramczyk is also under contract (again without guarantees to his base salary) for the 2025 and 2026 seasons as well.
