The New Orleans Saints are no longer entering the void.

Well, to be specific, the Saints are no longer using void years. That was the salary cap tactic, for those who need a refresher, that allowed New Orleans to essentially tack on dummy years to spread out a signing bonus and lower a player’s cap hit even after his contract expired. The workaround was a key strategy for a front office that annually walked a tightrope between staying competitive and staying under the hard-set league cap.

But the Saints are in a new era.

As first noted by Spotrac, none of the nine contracts signed by the Saints this month have included void years this offseason. Not only is that a huge shift from the last few years, but it also signifies that the Saints finally see themselves out of the salary cap mess that they’ve had to navigate. While tacking on void years can be useful in the moment, the strategy can create long-term challenges if not managed properly.

The Saints are taking a simpler approach this time around.

New Orleans’ contracts this offseason have been relatively straightforward. They’re front-loaded, giving them flexibility for the future.

Take running back Travis Etienne’s four-year, $52 million contract, for instance. A closer look at the deal reveals that the 27-year-old received a $12 million signing bonus and that the first two years of his base salary ($2 million in 2026, $10 million in 2027) are guaranteed — for a total of $24 million in guarantees. That essentially makes the contract a two-year deal with two more team options after that. The Saints have an easy out with Etienne in 2028 — cutting him would only leave $6 million (the rest of his already distributed signing bonus) on that year’s books.

The Saints’ handling of Etienne’s contract is far from revolutionary. That’s how most NFL contracts are structured. But for New Orleans, it’s significant because of how the team structured deals previously. Chase Young’s three-year, $51 million deal that was signed last offseason, for example, contained four void years. Juwan Johnson’s three-year, $30.5 million contract contained two void years.

Not every Saints contract was set up that way — Carl Granderson’s four-year, $52 million extension in 2023 is structured very similarly to Etienne’s deal — but the Saints had a habit of crafting contracts in a way that they knew would have to be addressed down the line. Granderson’s contract, for instance, has been restructured for three years straight.

It remains to be seen if the Saints will do the same with Etienne, but New Orleans notably had to restructure fewer contracts this offseason to open up cap space. This, too, was a big change.

According to Over The Cap, the Saints have nearly $13 million in unused cap space. Factor in another $7.6 million in cap space their incoming rookie class will take up, and the Saints will still have some wiggle room in case other needs arise. And that’s without having touched the contracts for linebacker Pete Werner and guard Cesar Ruiz, two obvious restructure candidates.

The Saints’ end goal appears to be preserving their flexibility for 2027 and beyond. With the parade of dead money from Derek Carr, Cam Jordan, Demario Davis and others finally off the books after this season, the Saints are projected to have more than $75 million in cap space next offseason, according to Over the Cap.

That’s real money to spend. And it coincides with Tyler Shough entering the third-year of his four-year rookie scale contract. If the Saints determine Shough is worthy of a big-time extension, 2027 and 2028 create a window for the Saints to take advantage before the quarterback’s new contract would kick in.

The Saints know how valuable that can be.

“You have some leeway to manage resources a little bit,” Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said. “But you still have to make really good decisions. I think it’s pretty well documented that teams that have a quarterback on a rookie deal have been able to do some things and have some success. And so part of that is just building your roster and managing it over the two-, three-, four-year period that you’re facing.

“And it’s just a different equation. It’s a different math equation, really.”

That equation is now underway.