NEW ORLEANS -- The Saints are restructuring Derek Carr's contract to open up $30.9 million in 2025 cap space, according to a source on Saturday.

The Saints plan to convert Carr's $30 million base salary and $10 million guaranteed roster bonus to a signing bonus, pushing money to future years and lowering his 2025 cap figure to $20.4 million. Carr's base salary was set to become fully guaranteed Friday.

Restructuring Carr's contract ties the quarterback to the Saints for at least the 2025 season and increases Carr's 2026 cap figure to $69.2 million in the final season of his contract. That means the Saints will likely face questions about his contract again next year.

Restructuring Carr's contract affirms what Saints general manager Mickey Loomis and Saints coach Kellen Moore said at the NFL scouting combine in February. Loomis told reporters then that the Saints planned to stick with Carr for a third season but needed to address his $51.4 million cap hit due to the team's strained salary cap situation.

"Yeah, it's tight," Loomis spoke of the salary cap in February. "There's no secret to that, and his is a big number, so we're going to hopefully be able to maneuver."

Sticking with Carr didn't appear to be a certainty when the Saints initially hired Moore, who sounded noncommittal on Carr's future in his opening news conference before affirming his commitment a few weeks later at the NFL combine.

Several NFL sources believe that Carr was open to testing the market in recent weeks, possibly filling a void with a quarterback-needy team before free agency, but the Saints showed no outward desire to trade or cut him. Multiple teams in the quarterback market were made aware of this in recent weeks, the sources said. Carr told ESPN in January that he wouldn't take a pay cut. 

The Saints started March with a significant amount of work to do on the cap, needing to free up at least $40 million in space. They restructured the contract of center Erik McCoy on Wednesday to free up $7.1 million in 2025 cap space.

These two moves almost make the Saints cap compliant, although they will need to free more space to account for the contracts of Juwan Johnson, Tanoh Kpassagnon and Chase Young potentially void when the new league year begins Wednesday.

Carr has two seasons remaining on the four-year deal he signed in 2023 and is set to void on the last day of the 2026 league year.

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler contributed to this report.