I don't understand the doom and gloom

Instead of paying Brees $24M per season as he wanted now we're only paying him $16M. That's $8M we're saving this year. Sure we'd have liked to work out a deal long-term, but we are getting Brees on the cheap for at least one more year this way and we can bite the bullet next year if needed.

With this $8M saved we can definitely keep Colston with a front-loaded (and maybe short) deal.

Nicks is obviously gone now having the same agent as Brees, but when's the last time we didn't plug in an interior offensive linemen and have him excel right away. Sure you could say that homo Kreutz but look - we plugged in De La Puenta and he was a stud. We'll find another good to great guard - either in the draft or FA or already on our roster.

I view this as glass as half full. We keep our most important piece and save at least $7MM this year in cap space.

And one last thought - now that the hammer has dropped on Brees this may help the Saints and him hash out a longer term deal. Sometimes all the cards on the table have to be played to end up at the logical destination.