The New Orleans Saints were blindsided by the retirement of longtime center Max Unger on Saturday. Unger was a cornerstone of the Saints offense since they traded for him in the 2015 offseason, and he had one year left on the contract extension he had previously signed with the team.
He also had a salary cap hit of $8.7 million for the 2019 season. The Saints would have saved $6.95 million of that had they released Unger, but Nick Underhill of the Advocate confirmed that they will recoup that $6.95 million once he is placed on the reserve/retired list.