NFL rumors: Did Saints just make final cap moves to fit Derek Carr?

The Saints continue to circumvent the salary cap via restructures, making everyone wonder how close they are to signing Derek Carr.

In Mike Tripplet’s latest column for NewOrleans.football where he explored the “Plan B” options for the New Orleans Saints at quarterback, he hinted that the Saints could sign Derek Carr, “maybe in the coming days” (subscription required).

Now, maybe that was just a statement of fact, that a signing could literally come at any point. That’s no different than several days ago, or several days from now, if Carr is still unsigned.

Or perhaps — and this is entirely me connecting dots, not anything Trip has said explicitly — maybe he has a gut feeling or some sort of intel fueling that insertion.

The Saints continued to make salary cap moves on Saturday night, adding $12.72 million of salary cap space.

The moves bring them to $29.9 million in cap space. They’re getting very close to the $35 million that Carr is looking for in free agency. Time to sign Carr? Maybe!

Derek Carr to the Saints feels closer than ever

The Derek Carr saga has been a long one, and it could end up being even longer. But so far, the Saints are the only team to show Carr any sort of true commitment to getting him to their team.

The New York Jets met with Carr and hosted him in Jersey. But they seem to want to wait and see on Aaron Rodgers and his retirement or not.

The Carolina Panthers met with Carr during the NFL Draft Combine, but only when the two sides just happened to be in the same place. They did not fly Carr out to Charlotte, that we know of. It felt like a meeting of convenience, not of true interest for Carolina.

New Orleans, on the other hand, hosted Carr before he was even a free agent, agreeing to the skeleton of a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders to get their approval for his visit. They committed to a trade just to get Carr in the door. 

That has to mean something to Carr, even if it doesn’t sway him all the way.

And now, the Saints are moving whatever mountains they can within the salary cap to land Carr. That, again, has to mean something to Carr, who was more or less hung out to dry by his last team.

Carr to New Orleans? With each day, it starts to feel more right for both sides. The NFL rumors can go ahead and get rolling again now, please!