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At long last, by 3 p.m. next Monday, Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints will finally have agreed to a new five-year contract. It will be the biggest upset of the NFL season if they don't.


New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees celebrates their first Super Bowl berth after their 31-28 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday at the Superdome.
The two sides will probably keep haggling over the details right up until the July 16 deadline. But it will be stunning if Brees doesn't ultimately sign a contract worth somewhere between $19.2 million and $20 million per year, making him the highest-paid player in NFL history.

Only an absurd amount of stubbornness could get in the way now.

The Saints have already offered Brees the richest contract in league history, surpassing the $19.2 million per year that the Denver Broncos gave quarterback Peyton Manning earlier this year, though it's not clear exactly how the offer was structured.

Frankly, that should be enough to get the deal done. And maybe it will be if the Saints refuse to give another inch over the next week.

Meanwhile, Brees and agent Tom Condon will try to push that number up to $20 million per year, and they'll push for more guaranteed money and more money in the first three years. And good for them if they can get it.

This could be the last big contract of Brees' career, and he deserves as much as he can get after outperforming all of his previous contracts.

But once Brees has leveraged the Saints' final offer as high as it can go, it would be hard to imagine him walking away from such a lucrative long-term deal.

It would be unthinkable for Brees to turn down something like $96 million because he wants $100 million, when the alternative is a one-year, $16.4 million deal under the franchise tag - and all the uncertainty and unhappiness that would come along with it.

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Rugby Saint II

Mardigras9

Is it July 16 yet, hurry please, make it all end.