I'm going to take a stab at this without knowing all the details of his contract.

First, the organization decided not to restructure his deal this year, not Brees. So the OP is a bit off by blaming DB. The reason for them doing this? I think it's due to their ability to get well below the cap with the deals they are restructuring currently. If they do Brees now, that will help even more so; however, where will that leave us next year? Most likely we won't have many restructuring options at that time, and we will have some big free agent decisions to be made. They will need Brees' contract to be restructured next year in order to get below next year's cap. Doing it this year will give us no flexibility in '16.

I could be wrong on all of this, but again I don't know all the contracts of the players and their details. This is the most logical reason based on my current knowledge.

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Posted by bonethug0108

Avondale

Member since Mar 2013

12690 posts

Posted on 3/5/15 at 9:28 am to Midget Death Squad

Technically speaking if we redid the deal this year and didn't touch what we saved(or only part of it) we could carry it over. So it really doesn't matter from that perspective if we did it this year or next.

What does happen next year is we have more leverage (threatening a very unlikely cut or dangling more guaranteed money next year). If we redid him this year any signing bonus would also be on this year's cap and without an extension it wouldn't be cost effective.

But next year it has to be an extension as a simple restructure is not possible.

Now there is also the fact that Brees is getting older and, while still playing at a very high level, has been on a slight downward slope. If we extend him this year we are locked into him good or bad for the next 3-4 years. Waiting a year gives us roster flexibility as far as what we can do at the position.

And following that we could very well just let him play the deal out and figure it out in 2017.

So it's not really about saving more this year as we have options that could save the same regardless. It's more about gaining leverage and keeping options open.

But you are right in that the Saints are the ones deciding to wait. And that could also put the fear of injury and no further payday in Brees' head. That is very good leverage to have. It's why players hate the franchise tag.

This post was edited on 3/5/15 at 9:32 am

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