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Agent's Take: How Drew Brees can get paid -- and still help out the Saints
By Joel Corry | Former Sports Agent
March 15, 2016 4:06 pm ET

Ideally, the New Orleans Saints would have signed 37-year-old quarterback Drew Brees to a contract extension to lower his league-high $30 million 2016 salary cap number before free agency started on March 9. A new deal would have given the Saints, who entered free agency with approximately $8.8 million of salary cap room, more flexibility to improve a 7-9 team coming off its second straight season without a playoff berth. Curiously, the Saints' big free agency move has been signing tight end Coby Fleener to a five-year, $36 million contract with $18 million in guarantees despite possessing a historically bad defense in 2015.

It has been quiet on the Brees contract front since Saints general manager Mickey Loomis shot down the notion that the nine-time Pro Bowler could be traded or released in January and subsequently declared his intention to sign him to a new deal in a Sirius XM NFL Radio interview. Head coach Sean Payton expressed optimism about quickly reaching an agreement with Brees in an NFL Network interview at last month's NFL Scouting Combine. Tom Condon, Brees' agent, in an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show last week, anticipated that contract talks would begin in a couple of weeks. This projected timing coincides with the NFL's Annual Meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, set for March 20-23. Loomis declined to answer questions about Brees' contract at LSU's Pro Day yesterday.

Brees appears to hold all of the cards in negotiations with the Saints. He is entering the final year of the five-year, $100 million deal he signed in 2012 to become the NFL's first $20 million-per-year player and reset the league's pay scale. $10.85 million of his $19.75 million base salary became fully guaranteed without an offset on February 10.

Using a franchise tag on Brees in 2017 if he played out his contract would be too cost prohibitive. His franchise tag number will be $43.09 million, which is based on 144 percent of his 2016 cap number. Brees must decide whether to exploit his leverage with a new deal or take some sort of hometown discount in an effort to help the Saints improve the talent around him to try to become Super Bowl contenders again.

Should Drew Brees give the Saints a hometown discount?

Agent's Take: How Drew Brees can get paid -- and still help out the Saints - CBSSports.com

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