WhoDat!656

"I think I've been around this league long enough to understand how this works at times," Brees said. "In a lot of cases, it does go down to the wire, and you need a stopping point in order to bring everyone together and make sure it can get done.

"That stopping point is Monday, so let's hope we get something done by then."

Drew Brees on Saints deal: I'm an 'eternal optimist' - NFL.com

QBREES9

Yuuuuuuuuuuup you will sign on monday. Do you really think your wife will let you walk away from 19.5 million dollars. Do you !

SaintFanInATLHELL

Sure she would. She understands that it isn't really walking away from $19.5 million, which is a smoke and mirrors number. The only real dollars are the non-injury guaranteed dollars. Everything else is Monopoly money.

Remember the Albert Haynesworth $100 million contract with the Redskins? It's not the NBA where he was guaranteed to get all those dollars when he signed. Most of them were backloaded on the end of a very long contract period, with no expectation of ever being paid. Haynesworth got his signing bonus, and the Redskins paid a $21 million option in the second year of the contract because it was an uncapped year in 2010. After that, they essentially owed him nothing, with only the signing bonus counting against the cap after the 2010 season.

Right now here are DB's "guarantees":

$16.3 million in 2012
$23.6 million in 2013

both under the tag. That's $40 million, hard cash, against the cap right now, money.

Honestly, if the Saints' offer (which from all reports is from June 1st, before the hearing), doesn't offer more than $40 million guaranteed in the first two years, then why should DB even bother to look at it?

The eventual contract should have $50 million or so in guaranteed money, and the vast majority of that should be paid in the first three years.

The contract issue has never been about the total or average dollars. It is, has been, and will always be about guarantees and structure. The Saints have good reason to want to make this deal. The long term deal takes the same dollars as above, and spreads them out over the life of the contract. Brees has good reasons outlined above, as to why the guaranteed dollars should be well north of $40 million, and paid early, not later in the contract.

We shall soon see, won't we?

SFIAH

Super Bowl Championships: New Orleans Saints:1, Carolina:0, Atlanta Chokers: STILL ZERO

Only Atlanta choked in an unchokable situation... Life is definitely good.

QBREES9

10 million dollars a part and he's an eternal optimist. YEAH RIGHT !!!!!!!! LOL

Rugby Saint II

No. I'm the eternal optimist! This doesn't have the feel that I get from optimism. I felt it before and this ain't it!

The Dude

Brees is gone. Simply put. He may sign a tag or a 1 year deal but after that he's gone.

QBREES9

Dude boy were you wrong ! LOL