The New Orleans Saints have restructured contracts with receiver Marques Colston and guards Jahri Evans and Ben Grubbs to create more in salary-cap space, league sources have confirmed. They also restructured linebacker David Hawthorne's deal, according to ESPN.com. Add Hawthorne's reported restructuring and the Saints have cut around $10 million off their 2013 salary cap figure with these four reworked deals. The players converted portions of their base salaries into signing bonuses -- a very common practice used by NFL teams to create short-term salary-cap relief. As of last count, the Saints were estimated to be around $15 million over the projected 2013 salary cap of roughly $122 million-$123 million -- though that number is very fluid as they continue to rework deals and start to make some tender offers to their restricted free agents. Source: The Times-Picayune
