Barring a new deal, Drew Brees is going to cost the New Orleans Saints $30 million this season.
And according to his agent, Tom Condon, the Saints don’t seem inclined to make an adjustment at this time.
Tom Condon on @RichEisenShow, says the Saints seem to be satisfied with carrying Brees' cap number right now.
— Joel A. Erickson (@JoelAErickson) May 11, 2016
When Brees originally signed his five-year, $100 million contract, it was thought by pretty much everyone that a new extension would be worked out at some point. After all, the thought of any player in the NFL making $30 million in a single year, when the cap can get so tight, was just ludicrous.
But here we are, with NFL free agency in the rear-view mirror and the Saints having signed all but one of their incoming rookies. Suddenly, it might not be as big a deal as we thought.
That said, the Saints don’t exactly have a tremendous cap situation going on right now, so the conversations between Condon and the Saints could take a turn soon.
Still, with the team having experienced three 7-9 seasons the past four seasons with Brees at the helm, perhaps the franchise feels a one-year salary of $30 million would be cheaper than the guaranteed cash that would come with a long-term deal. Perhaps the Saints are starting to wonder if it’s not time to blow it all up and get younger all around.
Last year, New Orleans featured one of the oldest rosters in the NFL.
Brees is now 37. He’s undoubtedly one of the best quarterbacks in the league — easily still in the top 10. But he’s also taking lots of hits in his latter years, and his window is shrinking to the point where he could have a Manning-esque transformation soon.
The Saints have to be careful what they do at this point. They don’t want to continue carrying dizzying amounts of dead cash into each season.
With that in mind, it’s going to be very interesting to follow this story to see if Brees ends up actually playing the 2016 NFL season under his current deal.