I don't think it makes sense that this Brees situation would be a smoke screen. If this deal had gotten done sooner, the Saints would have been in play for some quality free agents. Why would you purposefully drag this out for the mere POSSIBILITY that it will help you get the player you want in the draft, and then hope that player works out?

All the buzz about wanting this guy, or that guy, or trading up for the 1st pick... That's the kind of smoke screen you can do. You don't screw yourself in free agency on purpose, just for the off chance it might help you in the draft. That would be a really dumb strategy.

“Do I want to sign an extension? Yes, I do. Do the Saints feel that way? Yes. Do the fans feel that way? Yes. So we all agree on that,” Brees said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, is sign an extension that would not only keep me there but also reallocate money so that it opens cap room in various ways that would kind of fit the team and what we need. ... So I would say we’re all being pro-active in that way.

“There’s no timeline or deadline to this. It’s very open-ended,” Brees added. “Maybe once the draft occurs and now you’ve got kind of all the pieces in place that you feel like, this is what we need and this is our team moving forward, then you’re in a better position to predict the cap for this year, next year and so forth.”