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New Orleans and QB Drew Brees have officially come to terms on a two-year $50 million contract., per Ian Rapoport.
The #Saints agree to terms with QB Drew Brees, source said. He gets a 2-year deal worth roughly $50M. Never in doubt, but now done. And Brees took less to help the team continue to build.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 17, 2020
The average per year figure sitting at $25 million per year is exactly as expected. Considering that the Titans and Ryan Tannehill just agreed to a $29.5 million contract, Brees came in well below what he could have made. This is a team friendly deal that will allow the Saints to continue to build around their Hall of Fame quarterback. This is not the first time that Brees has taken a Who Dat-friendly deal. Remember that recently it was learned that he had turned down a two-year $60 million offer from the Cardinals for a cheaper deal with New Orleans.
If you feel that the $50 million price tag is steep, do not worry. This is exactly why the Saints were waiting to see what happened with the CBA. Very likely, there will be voidable years that will help spread out the cap hit as well as other structural tricks as observed by Kat Terrell of the Athletic.
Had the new CBA not been voted in, this would have been a much trickier situation. But with no 30% rule and all of their usual tricks at their disposal, Mickey Loomis and Khai Hartley have done it again, shaping a deal to keep Drew Brees in New Orleans without crippling the team from building around him.
Despite the two-year structure, this could still very well be Brees’ last year.
Now that Brees is in place, the rest of the dominoes should begin to fall for New Orleans. They unfortunately missed out on Jammie Collins last night, but there are many other splashes left to be made now that they are clear to spend knowingly as the market settles down.
Update:
Contract details are now known for Brees’s new deal.
Drew Brees’ 2 year, $50M contract w/ the #Saints includes a $23M signing bonus, $25M each year, & cap hits of:
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 18, 2020
2020: $23.65M
2021: $36.15M
He’ll leave $11.5M of dead cap behind after the deal expires.
Full Breakdown:https://t.co/iXcIwxTIds
A $2 million dollar base salary in 2020. That’s Loomis-economics 101.