re: Brees willing to restructure contract

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Indeed, the NFLPA doesn’t want the cap to ever spike, since a spike would be unfair to the players who did long-term deals under a lower cap in the prior year. The union instead prefers a “smoothing” of the cap, with steady, gradual, predictable growth.

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Every dollar spent now eventually must be accounted for under the salary cap. And if the cap will only be growing by, for example, 1.9 percent in 2013, pushing too many cap dollars into the future will eventually force teams to make tough decisions.

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For example, the Saints went “cash over cap” last year by paying quarterback Drew Brees a total of $40 million, even though his cap number was nearly one fourth of that, at $10.4 million. But the remaining $29.6 million will hit the cap later.

For Brees, the piper will be paid in 2015, when the Saints will carry a $26.4 million cap number for a 36-year-old quarterback. The next year, the cap number will be $27.4 million. Even if there’s a “restructuring,” those dollars will still hit the cap, eventually (unless Brees agrees to reduce his salary in either year).

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