Last offseason, New Orleans Saints star right tackle Ryan Ramczyk underwent knee surgery in hopes of returning for the 2024/25 season. Due to the severity of the injury and Ramczyk’s age, the Saints elected to rule the veteran lineman out for the season. This was the first sign that Ryan Ramczyk’s days in the NFL were numbered, and with pictures of his massive weight loss circulating throughout the season, it became expected that Ramczyk would retire after this season. Today, the Saints started their yearly offseason cap gymnastics by restructuring Ramczyk’s contract and freeing $16.7 million, per OverTheCap.
Although this move may just look like one of the normal restructures that the Saint do, it also allows the Saints to officially declare Ryan Ramczyk’s retirement. If Ramczyk did retire before the season, the cap hit would have been terrible for the team and would have caused many issues. That is the main reason why this move is happening now and why Ramczyk was only put on injured reserved before the season. In terms of cap space, the Saints are still around $50 million in the negative, but they can still easily get back to positive cap space by restructuring other contracts.
