Re: Pay Brees!
 

because they focus on how they think things should be

Re: Pay Brees!
 

For the Love of GOD, pay BREES.

Re: Pay Brees!
 

one game when most would have missed several, good point. Thanks for the help!!

Re: Pay Brees!
 

Pay him what?

Re: Pay Brees!
 

Monkey nuts

Re: Pay Brees!
 

I know there are other responses that match this. I thought I had posted this before I left out. Posting anyway.

That coupled with the available pool of money is what defined the market.
I disagree about "earned". The value of any good or service is strictly defined by what people are willing to pay for it. It's the reason that the highest paid employee in virtually every state government is the high-profile football coach.

Brees does a job in a nearly $14 billion a year market that has less than 10,000 employees at a level that less than 5 people on this planet can do. Now is it fair that the NFL has that market size? Probably not. But has Brees earned his share of the market? Absolutely.

And you are asking the correct question. You have a guy that is far outproducing all the 25 year olds that are getting paid more than he is. The desperate teams in the market will pay to get the type of stability we've had at the QB position for the last decade.
So that's the value choice that each and every GM has to make. The system is set up with cost controls for the first 5 years of the contract after the draft and an open market afterwords. Players who are extremely productive before free agency build a potential value that can be tapped on the second contract. Teams always make the value proposition that the production will continue and match the value of the dollars. Sometimes it works (Brees, Jordan, Ingram) and sometimes it doesn't (Byrd, Gallette, up until now Spiller). And the Saints will have make more of these choices in the future (Cooks, Breaux). And sometimes I think the team just takes a flyer where the value of the contract doesn't match the previous production and there is a hope that the future production will in fact pan out. As of today I put Fleener in that category.
Deferring the money is the teams hedge against bad decisions in theory. All organizations are only on the hook for guaranteed money. So pushing a chunk of money in the future allows for further evaluation into the next contract as to make decision of whether to continue to pay or not.

It has to be balanced against players wanting their money up front. The NFL is the only pro league that has deferred non guaranteed contracts. When Lebron signed his 3 year $100 million contract this month, he's going to get that money whether or not he ever steps foot on the court for Cleveland ever again. It's all guaranteed. You can see the failures of that model with Kobe as an example. His last contract paid him I believe $24 million/year over a number of years, many of which he simply did not play. That contract in the NFL would be structured as up front guaranteed money, bonus payments contingent on being on the team, and unguaranteed salary, which simply isn't paid when the player is cut.

We'll see a sample of this with Byrd next year. He'll either restructure, or he will be cut because it'll cost the team more to keep him than to cut him.

But at the end of the day, this is the chess match of the NFL. Teams like the Patriots tend to cut most of their high profile people the year before they come into big money and continue their success with getting and developing young talent. Other clubs are a continual string of poor choices. The Saints have been hit and miss. But understand it's rare that someone becomes a Hall of Famer with their second or third club. Brees has been nothing but money since 2006. So my opinion is that the title of this thread is absolutely correct.

SFIAH

Re: Pay Brees!
 

Please expound on your point as to why that would be. Brees isnt the reason why we didnt make the playoffs and had back to back 7-9 seasons. He's the reason why we're still a contender every year.

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Re: Pay Brees!
 

Unfortunately that logic doesn't fly for a couple of reasons:

1. Contracts for high profile players are not a strict "what have you done for me lately..." situation. Most often it is tapping the built up potential of past performance. Brees has already outplayed his contract... twice. He does not deserve frankly the disrespect of needing to be evaluated at this point in his career.

2. After the season it's no longer an extension. After the season, Drew Brees is a free agent who's services are available on the open market. And the Saints cannot afford to franchise him at $43 million for a single season with the entire cap hit in that year.

Now the Saints can certainly decide that they cannot afford the market value of a soon to be HOF QB and go in a different direction. And that's perfectly reasonable. Green Bay did this with Farve not too terribly long ago. But don't get it twisted and think that the Saints have any leverage in this situation. They don't. So it's simple. Since Brees and his team have given a deadline of the beginning of the season to get this done, the deadline is fast approaching. The Saints need to make the decision they are going to keep Brees and for all intents and purposes break the bank, or decide not to do it and be satisfied with letting the best QB the organization has ever had (and I posit may ever have) go. Options like "let's evaluate and decide" or "let's offer less than market value" are simply not options. If this isn't done by September 11th, we all need to start thinking about other options at the QB position.

I can see that some of you do not find that to be very fair. But it's reality. What I really want to know is exactly what options for a starting QB for 2017 for the Saints are if Brees ends up elsewhere? Because that's the reality if this doesn't get done by the first week of September. And what I've seen so far, the Saints do not have a future HOF QB sitting on the bench like Green Bay did when they let Farve go. Or a #1 pick of a once in a generation QB like Indy when they let Manning go.

SFIAH

Re: Pay Brees!
 

I'll try. If the Saints, which I believe is into the top teir in paying for the entire team has gone 7-9 the last 2 seasons with a top paid qb( I know since his last contract he's not the #1 top paid qb. today) going 7-9, 8-8, 9-7, or 10-6 would be the same thing as paying out top dollar for Brees on a 2-14, 3-13, 4-12 team, makes entirely no since. Losing is losing, so going another direction should happen sooner than later. I don't blame Brees for not making the playoffs but why "pay the man" a huge contract if we're a stellar team. It would hurt down the road again.

Re: Pay Brees!
 

The minimum that will keep him here instead of seeking a contract on the open market. I'd start with 3 years, $72 million, all guaranteed. The $24 million a year isn't absolute top dollar. But no NFL player has ever gotten a 100% guaranteed contract either. That may offer Brees enough stability to convince him to stay.

Note that the $24 million is both less than the $30 million cap hit he currently has and nearly half of the $43 million required to franchise him next year.

The bottom line is that Brees (and every other NFL player) want the stability of years and guaranteed money. NFL owners and GM want the flexibility to renegotiate dollars and the ability to cut the player before the end of the contract for poor performance. In the situation where the end of the contract will be for a player in his early 40s, keeping the years down is probably the critical item. But the only way to get that concession is to up the guaranteed money.

You could see this with the negotiation on the Von Miller contract this year. Both sides had agreed on the principal numbers ($114 million over 6 years). Denver offered only $40 million in guaranteed money in their initial offer. Only by pushing it to nearly $70 million guaranteed were they able to get the deal done. The reason is that the guaranteed money is the only real money in the contract. Every player and every GM knows that as soon as the cap payout is less than the upcoming remaining unguaranteed salary, that the contract in terms of the player is threatened. Upping the guaranteed money pushing that time further back into the contract. A fully guaranteed contract pushes it to the end of the contract.

So Brees, and rightly so, will resist attempts to build soft money into the contract as it threatens its stability. And he, and all of us should, know that he can dictate terms in the open market. That contract will likely be above market value, above 75% guaranteed, and have an extended number of years so that the club can spread out the cap hit.Think along the lines of 6 years $150 million, $110 million guaranteed. That's why I keep saying that if Brees agrees to a 3 or 4 year extension around $25 million a year, it ends up being a bargain for the Saints relative to the market.

So up the guaranteed money, limit the years, and try to get the total value as small as possible. That's the formula for getting this done IMHO.

SFIAH