Money matters, another OC candidate and a playoff rooting guide

Good morning, and welcome to the January 27 edition of the Saints Insider newsletter. Get your calculators and abaci ready, because the time has come to talk about the salary cap. 

Same problem, different challenges

The Saints have roughly a month and a half to clear somewhere in the range of $84 million from their books in order to be compliant with the salary cap. The date, for those who are curious, is March 13 — the official first day of the new league year. 

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know this is not a new challenge for the Saints. They, in fact, cleared more than $100 million in consecutive years. While it isn't necessarily true that their aggressive cap management has finally caught up to them, they do have some unique challenges as it relates to tackling this year's cap conundrum. 

One of the problems with kicking the can down the road is that the individual cap charges for players get larger every year, and that really becomes a problem when those players don't produce at the same level as when they initially signed their contracts. 

So, follow along as I explain the basics of the Saints' salary cap management, as well as why their annual problem-solving exercise is a little more tricky this year. 

New OC candidate

The Saints want to take a look at former Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson for their vacant offensive coordinator job, sources confirmed to our beat writer Matt Paras. If you're counting at home, that is nine coaches the Saints have officially been linked to in their search. If you've been behind, you can catch up with our handy OC tracker here.

Two of those coaches have taken other jobs. Several others have received plenty of other interest around the league and should have their choice of jobs, including one coveted assistant from the Los Angeles Rams. 

Geaux Lions?

The Saints may not be in the mix this year, but that probably doesn't mean there is any shortage of local interest. 

Columnist Rod Walker, in fact, offered a playoff rooting guide with a New Orleans theme. There's one obvious choice, in his eyes. 

And speaking of that obvious choice, columnist Jeff Duncan sees a lot of similarities between what is happening in Detroit right now to what happened in New Orleans in 2006. 

From Duncan: "What (head coach Dan) Campbell is doing in Detroit looks and feels so much like what Sean Payton did in New Orleans back in 2006. Both men took over downtrodden organizations and through sheer will and the force of their personalities changed the culture and mindset of their respective operations, lifting the spirts of their cities along the way." 

That's all we've got. Have a great weekend, and we'll catch y'all soon. 

Cheers,

Luke Johnson