The NFL Insiders crew detail the financial woes that plague the New Orleans Saints. (2:13)

METAIRIE, La. -- The New Orleans Saints just made another large cash deposit straight into the garbage disposal Tuesday, releasing running back C.J. Spiller after guaranteeing him $9 million over the past 18 months.

The move itself wasn't a total shock, especially after the Saints made Spiller a healthy inactive in Week 1. For whatever reason, he never seemed to earn the faith of coach Sean Payton on the football field, even when he appeared healthier this summer.

What is stunning is how much "dead money," or money counting against the salary cap from players no longer on the roster, the Saints have managed to compile over the past few years, with bad contracts and poor spending decisions.

C.J. Spiller, who was released by the Saints on Tuesday, rushed for just 112 yards last season and was a healthy inactive for the team's season opener on Sunday. Ken Murray/ICON Sportswire

Their fiscal irresponsibility has become as prolific as their passing offense.

The Saints lead the NFL this year with more than $40 million in dead money, which is more than 25 percent of their cap.

Let that soak in for a minute: One-fourth of their salary cap is being spent on players who don't play for them.

The list includes Spiller, Junior Galette, Brandon Browner and Keenan Lewis, among many others. It also includes Jahri Evans' old contract.

And that list doesn't even include their most expensive free-agent addition in recent years, safety Jairus Byrd, who has yet to pay dividends on the six-year, $54 million contract he signed in 2014, mostly because of injuries. It also doesn't include tight end Coby Fleener, who is admittedly still a work in progress after signing a five-year, $36 million deal this offseason.

I have been a defender of the Saints' funky way of choosing to push salary-cap costs into future years, even though others have criticized them for constantly "kicking the can down the road."

I don't mind that they are aggressively trying to win now, while they still have Drew Brees at quarterback, especially considering that the salary cap has skyrocketed in recent years. They can spend a year settling their debts whenever Brees is done playing.

In the meantime, the Saints have been able to keep core players such as DE Cameron Jordan, LT Terron Armstead and RB Mark Ingram, among others, while still spending aggressively in free agency.

I've said many times that the Saints and general manager Mickey Loomis would probably be lauded for their cap management if they were spending all of that money on the right players and actually winning.

But they're not, and they haven't been.

I don't think Loomis or Payton are in any danger of losing their jobs over all these high-priced misses. They've done too many things right over the years, and they've become trusted lieutenants under owner Tom Benson.

But they're still paying a huge price that might be even worse. They're wasting their window of opportunity to win while they have one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.

We saw it again Sunday, in New Orleans' 35-34 loss to the Oakland Raiders. Brees did everything he could to give the Saints a victory, throwing for 423 yards and four touchdowns. It wasn't enough, because the Saints haven't been able to build a good enough defense around him for three years running.

Maybe the Saints will eventually start hitting on more of their free-agent signings again, like they did earlier in the Loomis-Payton-Brees era. But maybe it'll be too late.