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In a discussion with ESPN’s Mike Greenberg on “Get Up” about Taysom Hill’s role in the offense in 2020, New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton indicated that 2020 could be the “final season” for Drew Brees.
Saints head coach Sean Payton on @GetUpESPN Tuesday morning and providing tons of great intel!
— Fletcher Mackel (@FletcherWDSU) March 31, 2020
In this clip SP talks about the role Taysom Hill will play in 2020.
Another thing that jumps out...
Payton referred to 2020 as Drew Brees’ “final season.” pic.twitter.com/L04A9CgAT6
The full quote from Payton was, “Drew Brees has announced he’s coming back for his final season.”
While the semantics of this statement can be argued to an extent, with Brees’s contract situation and age, he definitely is in a position in his career where this could be his final season, and Payton might have just confirmed that.
And it just started to feel real.
UPDATE:
Katherine Terrell of The Athletic has posted a quote from Sean Payton, attempting to clarify his recent comments regarding whether Drew would be calling it quits after 2020.
Sean Payton: "I'm a big dummy. I was chatting on ESPN and the way I worded it was that Brees was coming back from his last year. ... I think his plan is to take it year by year."
— Katherine Terrell (@Kat_Terrell) April 1, 2020
Honestly, regardless of whether Sean knows or believes 2020 is the final season for Brees, I would expect no other response at this time. It is far too early to make a formal announcement one way or the other.
Was it just a careless slip of the tongue from “a big dummy?” Or was it possible a Freudian slip indicating Payton knows something the rest of the world does not?
We likely will never know, but we’ll probably only have clarity regarding Drew’s status for the 2021 season after the 2020 season is in the books.