Drew Brees willing to restructure deal
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) looks at a paper against the Seattle Seahawks during the second half of the 2013 NFC divisional playoff football game at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
New Orleans Saints star quarterback Drew Brees is 34, and he knows that his championship window is slowly coming to an end. It’s time for him and the Saints to start making big pushes to capture a second ring with one of the game’s most decorated passers in its history, and some additional help on defense could do the trick for a team that will be a contender once again next year.
Brees is set to have an $18.4 million cap hit next season and will only make more money until his contract runs out in 2017, so the issue of a restructured deal has been raised. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune’s Larry Holder, Brees is willing to restructure his deal in order to give the Saints more cap flexibility in order to re-sign key players and add more pieces to a defense that is improving due to Rob Ryan and breakout years from Cameron Jordan and Keenan Lewis.
He said, “Whatever I can do to help this team, if they want to come to me and extend me even further, that’d be great.”
Zach Strief and Jimmy Graham are just two key players who will need new deals from the Saints, so getting some more cap space would greatly help one of the NFL’s best franchises out. If the Saints and Brees to agree to a restructured deal, then they will simply end up allocating his cap number to bonus money in order to free up space. Brees isn’t expected to take a paycut, but a restructured deal is still a nice gesture.