Saints & Drew Brees Close To Reaching Agreement On Extension, Deal Possible Wednesday

Update:

Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk reports that the Saints and QB Drew Brees are close to reaching an agreement on a contract extension.

• Mike Garafolo reports that a deal between Brees and the Saints could be in place as soon as Wednesday. According to Garafolo, it sounds like Brees wanted to get this deal done now, and avoid a situation where the Saints could be faced with a $43 million franchise tag or allow him to test the open market next year.
• Ian Rapoport confirms the reports and adds that the two parties have made “significant progress” recently regarding an extension, and there’s now optimism a deal could get done.

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Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports that the Saints and QB Drew Brees have begun discussions regarding a contract extension in the past week.

• According to La Canfora, the expectations is that the two parties will make a final push over the next few days to get an agreement in place before Sunday.
• La Canfora dds that Brees has been targeting a four-year, $100 million contract.
• Ed Werder confirms that the two parties are talking, but adds that there has been “minimal progress” thus far.

Brees recently told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that he’s sticking by his deadline to have a deal done before the start of the regular season or end contract talks until next year.

“That’s always been my mindset and my approach,” Brees said. “That’s what it was back in 2011. We were kind of in a similar situation and we got into the season, first couple weeks, and I just felt like it was becoming a distraction and I’d just rather focus on football. I hope that we can get something done between now and then, I’m confident that we can but you know at this point still just very much focused on getting us ready to play for Week One.”

Although, Florio reported that it was possible talks could pick up at some point in the near future.

If the two sides can’t get a new contract in place before the start of the season, the Saints’ options are to work on an extension before the start of free agency or use their franchise tag on him at a staggering $43.2 million, which accounts for a 44-percent raise.

Mike Triplett of ESPN previously suggested that Brees could have his sights set on over $60 million in guarantees as part of a new deal, which is more than Andrew Luck and Joe Flacco received in their new deals.

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 Focus has 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.