re: Quietly, Drew Brees moves toward free agency

If he doesn't sign an extension before FA $12 mil accelerates onto next year's cap. On top of the $6 mil he counts against next year, that's $18 mil.

He legit could get a $25 mil or more deal (think $28 mil is the absolute top unless it's a one or two year).

That's a potential $43 mil hit.

But if he resigns before hitting FA we're looking at closer to $35 mil.

Good news is we have a good bit of cap with very few expensive FAs (Brees, Vaccaro, maybe Ellerbe, and I think one more I'm forgetting (not Snead as he'll be a RFA)). But if Brees hits FA and we resign him don't look for us to add a bunch of FAs or more than one or two really good ones on backloaded deals.

Edit:
And Payton is going nowhere unless we have a VERY bad year, and with Brees at QB 7-9 seems to be the floor.