The New Orleans Saints released safety Kurt Coleman on Feb. 21 in a bid to add space beneath the 2019 NFL salary cap, which is projected to land somewhere between $189 and $191 million. Terminating Coleman’s contract freed up $4 million in salary cap space for the 2019 fiscal year, but how many resources do the Saints really have to work with now?
Sources vary. Two websites actively maintain public records on contract, and they’re in disagreement at the moment. Over The Cap hasn’t updated with Coleman’s release at time of writing, but simple math would result in a projected salary cap space total of $12,549,197. However, they have not yet accounted for the scheduled contract voidings of quarterback Teddy Bridgewater on March 3 and defensive end Alex Okafor on March 13.
The other source commonly referred to for contract information is Spotrac, which has already adjusted for the Coleman release and includes projected losses for Bridgewater and Okafor, as well as the cap space reserved for rookie draft picks. Spotrac suggests $10,598,653 in salary cap space for the Saints. For what it’s worth, both Over The Cap and Spotrac are working with a projected $189 million salary cap, plus the previously-reported $1.8 million in unused space the Saints rolled over from 2018.
So that puts the Saints at somewhere between $10.5 and $12.5 million in salary cap space for the upcoming season. That would rank the Saints in the 28 to 26 range leaguewide. They clearly have more work ahead of the March 13 free agency kickoff.
