Drew Brees Confident Extension Will Get Done, Says He Has “Quite A Few Good Years Left”

Drew Brees is confident that an extension will eventually get completed with the Saints and give him the opportunity to finish out his career in New Orleans.

“I’ve been through that a few times, so you know that (the contract extension) will happen when it’s supposed to happen,” Brees said on Tuesday, via Alysha Tsuji of USA TODAY. “There’s so much that goes into an offseason — you’re signing free agents, you’re signing rookies, you’re going through the draft process. Now as we get ready for training camp, I obviously, I see myself in New Orleans for the rest of my career.”

Brees mentioned that he still has “quite a few good years left.”

“I feel like I’ve got quite a few good years left,” Brees said. “I got one year left on the contract, but whether you have a one-year contract or a five-year contract, you’ve still got to prove it every year … even if you’re locked into a long-term deal, they can get rid of you at any time, so that’s my mindset.”

Brees has said previously that he doesn’t want to discuss a new deal during the season, so they likely have just a few months to make some progress on an extension.

Last we heard, Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports reported that the Saints are willing to allow Brees to play out the final year of his contract in part because of the amount of guaranteed money it would require for them to sign him to a contract extension.

Robinson’s sources have said that contract discussions between Brees’ representatives and the Saints are “at a standstill” right now, due in part to the fact that it would run the team around $20 million or so per year to get a new deal in place with Brees. Eli Manning secured $21 million per year in his new deal while Philip Rivers came away with $20.8 million, which explains why this could be Brees’ target.

According to Robinson’s sources, a new contract for Brees could end up in the neighborhood of a four-year contract worth between $95 million to $100 million to go along with over $65 million guaranteed.

New Orleans is clearly comfortable carrying Brees’ $30 million cap figure for the 2016 season and seeing how Brees holds up this year before reconsidering an expensive contract.

Brees, 37, has one year remaining on his five-year, $100 million contract that included $40 million guaranteed. He stands to make a base salary of $19.75 million of in 2016, while $10.85 million of that salary was guaranteed as of last Wednesday.

In 2015, Brees has thrown for 4,870 yards while completing 68.3 percent of his passes to go along with 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions over the course of 15 games. Pro Football Focushas him rated as the No. 6 quarterback out of 37 qualifying players.

We’ll have more regarding a contract extension for Brees as the news is available.