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The "Shutdown Countdown" is going full steam ahead. In addition to previewing each team, "Shutdown Corner" will be taking a brief look at each team's salary cap situation heading into the 2013 season and beyond. We continue the series with the New Orleans Saints. 2013 Adjusted Cap Number : $124.619 million (11th-lowest adjusted cap number in the NFL in 2013) 2013 Cap Room Remaining : $5.173 million (11th-lowest available cap space, as of July 22) Best Bargain : Center Brian de la Puente ping-ponged between the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs and Carolina Panthers before finding a home in New Orleans in 2010. Over the last two seasons, de la Puente has started 28 of 32 games and is coming off a season where he played in all 1,107 of the Saints' offensive snaps. According to Football Outsiders Almanac 2013, de la Puente had nine blown blocks in 2012, a rate of one blown block every 123.1 snaps that ranked 10th among interior offensive linemen. As a restricted free agent this offseason, the Saints placed a "Second Round" tender on de la Puente, which comes with a non-guaranteed base salary of $2.023 million, which would be the 20th-highest salary among NFL centers this season. Potential Camp Cap Casualty : To create salary cap space, the Saints cut tight end David Thomas and renegotiated the contracts of Brodrick Bunkley, Ben Grubbs, Jahri Evans, Marques Colston, Will Smith, Jonathan Vilma, Curtis Lofton, David Hawthorne and Roman Harper. With the Saints switching to a 3-4 defense, the 32-year-old Smith might have found himself on the bubble this summer. It will be interested to see how the veteran adjusts to the outside linebacker position, but at $3 million in base salary, Smith is unlikely to be going anywhere as he still has value as a pass-rusher in nickel packages.
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