At one point this offseason, the New Orleans Saints were a gargantuan $54.4 million over the NFL salary cap, a number that was not going to magically come into compliance once the final 2021 league figure was set -- barring it being set at around $250 million or more. That was never going to be the case, however, due to loss revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's now been instead set at only $182.5 million, leaving the Saints with a ton of work to do to both get in compliance by March 17 and to give themselves room to be players in free agency. The latest casualty in that war is veteran cornerback Janoris Jenkins, who got some bad news on Thursday.
Jenkins will reportedly be released by the Saints, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, having been due to hit their salary cap for $14.2 million this coming season.
The organization will be forced to eat $7.2 million in dead money by letting him go, but will save the $7 million difference toward their struggling cap. This comes on the heels of a rash of other moves fueled by cap issues in Louisiana, including the release of wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders and linebacker Kwon Alexander -- freeing up roughly $19.6 million in combined space. They've also restructured deals on both Demario Davis and Cameron Jordan, and you can bet a variety of additional cap moves will continue pouring in.
As for Jenkins, the immediate future is now focused on finding another NFL home.
The 32-year-old was released in 2019 by the New York Giants due to controversial comments stemming from a stream session on the video game platform Twitch, and was subsequently claimed off of waivers by the Saints before going on to sign a two-year, $16.75 million contract extension in 2020. In what turned out to be his final season in New Orleans, the former All-Pro grabbed three interceptions (one shy of tying his career-best mark) and scored a defensive touchdown, bringing his INT tally over the last three seasons to seven in all -- something that will likely draw interest around the league as free agency gets underway.
