A look at the cap with some trades

Free agency is approaching the offseason and the Saints find themselves $-48 million over the cap as of right now. 

March 17th is the start of free agency and the Saints have to be under the cap prior to that date. While they continue to make moves to get under the cap, Malcom Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Latavius Murray, and Kwon Alexander are all names mentioned in trade talks.

What exactly would a trade of any if all these players do for the cap? Let’s look at some scenarios.

Trading Malcom Brown would save $5 million in cap space ($-43 million). 

Trading Emmanuel Sanders would save $6 million with a trade, $4 million if he was released ($-37 to $-39 million). 

Trading Latavius Murray would save roughly $2.5 million in a trade or if he was released ($-35 to $-37 million). 

As to Kwon Alexander, I doubt a team trades for him. With that big of a contract and coming off of a season ending injury, it would be a risky play to trade for Kwon, but ultimately the Saints would win that trade. Trading or releasing Kwon would save $13 million in cap space ($-22 to $-24 million). 

Trading all these players would save $26.5 million in cap putting the Saints a little bit above $-22 over the cap. While releasing these players would save $24.5 million. 

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Written By Kadin Janisch

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