It just got a lot more expensive for the New Orleans Saints to re-sign Cameron Jordan. With the new league year beginning at 3 p.m. CT on Wednesday, March 11, Jordan’s contract officially ran out. Now he’s a free agent, and the Saints are left with $18.76 million in dead money from restructuring his contract so many times over the years.
And there’s nothing to be done about it. The Saints can’t reduce that dead money hit or spread it out over future years, even if Jordan signs a new deal. They would essentially be paying him twice. Even if he returned on the veteran minimum salary (in Jordan’s case, a league-mandated $1.3 million) the total cost would still be over $20 million. That’s tough to justify even for someone of Jordan’s stature.
Maybe the Saints are willing to pay what it costs to keep Jordan in black and gold for his entire NFL career. But if that were the case, you’d think they would have done so already. Maybe Jordan found a cooler market than he hoped for after rallying back with 10.5 sacks last year. Both sides knew this deadline was coming, and if neither was willing to budge, it just might mean a split is inevitable. We’ll see how things pan out in the days ahead.
