Drew Brees' Salary Situation With Saints is Still Very Complicated Despite Return Announcement
By Brendan Balsamo
New Orleans Saints fans can rejoice. On Tuesday, Hall-of-Fame quarterback Drew Brees announced that he'd be returning to the NFL in 2020 after speculation of his retirement had been circulating since the end of the Saints' 2019 season.
However, the legendary quarterback's return is not all perfect for the Saints. There's still a lot for them to work out with Brees, salary-wise.
.@drewbrees announces he will return for 2020 NFL season. pic.twitter.com/7Nzlu3Uc7h
— NFL (@NFL) February 18, 2020
Brees has a bizarre situation with the Saints. He's owed $21.3 million in dead money, whether he re-signs with the team or leaves in free agency (though he made it clear he'll be coming back to New Orleans).
Just to be clear, Drew Brees’ 2020 cap hit automatically starts at $15.9M because of his previous signing bonus & restructure. Anything new (salary, bonus, etc…) adds on from there. The #Saints will most likely be taking on a big time cap figure for the upcoming season.
— Spotrac (@spotrac) February 18, 2020
So now that we know he's staying, Saints fans should know he'll be owed the money from whatever contract the two sides negotiate PLUS the $21.3 million. This doesn't exactly make for a healthy cap situation.
Drew Brees accepted a $25M per year contract prior to 2018 that accounted for 14% of the league cap. With this logic, he’d be looking at a deal around $28M this time around. Though I believe a 3 year contract ranging from $90M to $100M in total value is more likely .
— Spotrac (@spotrac) February 18, 2020
The 2020 free agent market sees five of the Saints' nine players who took the most defensive snaps for the team in 2019 set to hit free agency. It's going to be tough to retain all or most of those guys given Brees' expected cap hit.
How much will free agency reshape Saints' defense? 5 of the 9 guys who played the most defensive snaps last year are unrestricted free agents (Bell, Apple, Williams, Klein, Onyemata) https://t.co/lYHq7iDjkx
— Mike Triplett (@MikeTriplett) February 17, 2020
The Saints front office has work cut out for them with free agency starting a month from now.