Saints restructure Wil Lutz’s contract

The Saints continue to methodically move down toward the NFL’s projected salary cap. While they have a long way to go, New Orleans made another move Friday afternoon on the path toward cap compliance ahead of the 2021 league year.

New Orleans will restructure Wil Lutz‘s contract, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). This move will create $1.74 million in cap space for the Saints. Lutz is attached to a five-year, $20.25 million extension he signed in March 2019. The five-year Saints kicker is signed through the 2023 season.

Many more moves will be required over the next week and change. The Saints entered Friday just more than $60 million over the $180 million mark that represents the floor for the 2021 salary cap. They have begun doing work to clear space, although the lion’s share of this process has yet to transpire.

The Saints released veterans Thomas Morstead and Josh Hill this week and restructured David Onyemata‘s contract. Along with Friday’s Lutz restructure, this work week’s round of moves created upwards of $11 million in cap space. New Orleans still has the most work to do on the cap front of any NFL team as the 2020 league year winds down.