Saints restructure another veteran contract to save salary cap space

We're only days away from the New Orleans Saints kicking off their 2026 regular season, but the team is still working to get their books in order. On Friday, the Saints restructured another veteran contract to open up salary cap space -- this time with defensive lineman Nathan Shepherd . The 32-year old will be a free agent in March.

Before the move, Shepherd had a salary cap hit of $7.12 million, highest of all the Saints' defensive linemen. Much of that came from his $4.77 million base salary, which was reduced to the minimum and paid back as a $3.4 million signing bonus. That means the Saints saved about $2.7 million on this year's books by deferring it to next year.

In the short term, it means New Orleans should be under the 2026 salary cap by about $8 million, give or take a couple hundred thousand dollars. That's going to give them flexibility in-season to send players to injured reserve and sign replacements while churning the practice squad and the bottom of the depth chart. It also means they could get active at the trade deadline in November. But it doesn't mean they're gearing up for a big move right now. They could also roll over unspent cap space into 2027.

But because Shepherd's contract expires after the 2026 season, restructuring him now means there will be more than $7.1 million left behind in dead money next year. That's not a big deal by itself, especially when the salary cap is projected to soar past $300 million. But look at all of the expiring deals (and dead money) the Saints may have to deal with in the spring:

Lump that in with the dead money already counting against them next year (about $1.19 million between Isaac Yiadom , TJ Hall Jr., and Devin Neal , among others) and you're looking at a bill of around $31.32 million. That's chump change compared to the $116.19 million the Saints are paying in dead money this year. But it's still something to keep in mind when we're setting high expectations for another active offseason in free agency.