According to Yahoo! Sports' Jason Cole, the Saints and free agent Drew Brees remain "roughly $5 million a year apart" on a new contract.

That's a lot of ground to make up by Monday's franchise tag deadline. The Saints could free up $5 million by restructuring Will Smith's contract, and another $11 million by cutting MLB Jonathan Vilma and DT Sedrick Ellis. If the Saints are forced to use the exclusive franchise tag on Brees, they run the risk of losing both Marques Colston and Carl Nicks.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

That's a big gap... I find that a little hard to believe.

So chase will take us to the playoffs? I'm not willing to place that bet.

For 24 million we can probably find 4 or 5 guys to make us a better team.

True because we havent lost any key players yet.

This just Suc !

They are talking about allocating a huge portion of their cap to Brees. Of course they could lose some guys with that. Is he worth it? He's sure one of the best. But you need a good team too. And 1 player can get old or injured. Supposedly millions apart. We will see what they do.