Saints veterans Marques Colston and David Hawthorne accepted pay cuts today in order to remain with the team. Colston’s base salary will drop from $6.9MM to $1.445MM in 2015 and from $7.7MM to $2.65MM in 2016, according to Larry Holder of The Times-Picayune (via Twitter). Hawthorne base salary was cut from $2MM to $1.19MM in 2015 and from $4MM to $1.75MM in 2016, according to Evan Woodbery of The Times-Picayune.
Colston’s new deal with the Saints will save the team $3.2MM this year, Mike Triplett of ESPN.com tweets. Meanwhile, he’ll receive $3.8MM in salary and bonuses this year. Word of Colston restructuring his deal first came in last week. Colston caught just 59 balls for 902 yards in 2014, the lowest totals of his career if you throw out an injury-plagued 2008 campaign.
Hawthorne was widely viewed as a possible cap casualty, but today’s news means he’ll stay in the fold for 2015 and possibly beyond.