Everything You Need To Know About Drew Brees’s Final Negotiations With The Saints

Drew Brees was one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks, and his two-decade-long career included becoming a Super Bowl champion, MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, and numerous other accolades. 

Around three-quarters of his career was with the New Orleans Saints, and though he played his last game in 2020, there were negotiations to bring him back for more. Let’s take a look at the final negotiations Brees had with the Saints.

Brees Was Offered $50 Million For Two Years

In 2020 Brees’s contract gave him $50 million spread out between 2020 and 2021. There was $2 million allotted for 2020, $25 million for 2022, and then a $23 million signing bonus. There was all sorts of complicated accounting behind these numbers. For 2020, there was $23.65 million to be counted against the salary cap. 

In 2021 that number was to be $36.15 million, and $11.5 million in 2022, though it was expected even then that he would retire before that. There was also the $11.5 million of dead cap space to be forfeited from the Saints in 2022 after the deal was to expire.

The Point Of The Deal

The deal made a lot of sense from the perspective of the Saints, who got to keep Brees, their star quarterback, at a great value for them. It especially looks good when you look at what inferior QBs were making. As the Saints had limited cap space at the time, getting Brees at a reasonable rate was truly a major win for them. 

It is nice that Brees went with his team rather than going for a higher bidder. Ultimately, though, it was not meant to be. After the 2020 season, the Saints decided they needed to renegotiate so they could save on their salary cap. They brought his salary to just $1.075 million for 2021, a huge drop from what had been expected. Around a month later, Brees gave the word that he was retiring from the NFL.