The 2026 offseason required far less in the way of salary cap gymnastics than previous years for the Saints. The team has still tweaked a few contracts, though.
The latest example on that front is linebacker Pete Werner. His pact was recently restructured, as noted by ESPN’s Katherine Terrell. As a result of the move, Werner’s 2026 cap charge has been lowered from just under $8MM to $3.94MM.
Werner was one of many veteran Saints who drew trade interest in 2025. New Orleans elected to keep him in the fold, though, and two years remain on his contract. The five-year veteran is due to collect $6.25MM this season and $6.5MM in 2027, although none of the latter figure is guaranteed.
Werner’s future will thus depend in large part on how he fares in 2026. The former second-rounder has amassed 63 starts during his New Orleans tenure, and he will be expected to remain a key defensive figure for at least one more season. Werner has recorded at least 80 tackles in each of the past four year; he added career-high totals in sacks (two), pass deflections (five) and fumble recoveries (three) in 2025.
The Saints brought back Kaden Elliss this spring. The former Falcon inked a three-year, $33MM deal in free agency and he will be counted on to produce alongside Werner. Replacing Demario Davis will be no small feat in 2026, but managing to do so could help team build off its momentum from late last season and contend for a playoff berth.
With the financial wiggle room brought on by the Werner restructure, the Saints now have roughly $8MM in cap space. No major additions should be expected, but low-cost roster moves will be more viable moving forward.
This is what personally makes no sense to me at all.
Werner is one of the best LBs in the entire league, still in his prime, and possibly their best and most important defensive player.
He’s exactly what you HOPE to draft at the position. It’s hard to see them being any kind of contender without players like this no matter how promising their offense now is.
Smart to keep him but really stupid to even consider trading him with the roster you’ve built. This isn’t baseball. You can’t run teams on a year to year basis and ever expect to compete. You build a core and build onto it.
These are the things that happen when you put yourself in Cap purgatory. At least this is the first year in a long time that the Saints haven’t had to renegotiate half of the their contracts just to field a team so it sounds like they’re on the right track at least. This is what I keep telling Bears fans who want to renegotiate their way to the top. Eventually that bill comes due and this is what happens. You can lose good players just because of previous bad decisions. It’s usually just better to make due with what you have and play for another day.