Bounty For Brees: Saints Lock Up QB With $100 Million Deal

Brees was at a Jimmy John’s franchise he owns in Metaire, La., eating some sandwiches and signing some autographs before he signed his contract when the Associated Press caught up with him to talk about the negotiations:

Brees’ five-year contract is worth $100 million.

Saints owner Tom Benson released a statement over Twitter after the deal was announced congratulating not only Brees, but general manager Mickey Loomis and his staff for getting the deal done.

Benson, Loomis, Brees and maybe even Sean Payton somewhere should all sleep a little easier tonight.

Manning will make $18 million in 2012, a far cry from Brees’ $40 million this season. Nevertheless, looking at the deals side by side, with a broader view of both, the money lines up pretty well.

Manning’s place in the game cannot be argued, but he is 36 and missed all of last season thanks to a series of neck surgeries. Brees is 32. The only start he missed since joining the Saints in 2006 was the final week of the regular season in 2009, when the Saints had home field locked up through the playoffs.

If you see it on Twitter, it’s official:

Brees just needs to keep playing like he is in order to earn that much money. He’s established himself as one of the three best quarterbacks in the game and comes off a season in which he broke Dan Marino’s single-season passing yards record. He did all that on a pedestrian (by NFL standards) contract that paid him only $10 million per season.

Saints fans are celebrating the news over at SB Nation’s Saints blog, Canal Street Chronicles, and reactions range from “wahoooo!!!!” to “Let’s get drunk!”

They should be rejoicing because, with a quarterback performing at the level Brees is, you’re always going to be considered a Super Bowl contender. He’s far and away the most important component of the team and the Saints have now locked him up for five more years.

All together, $60 million of the contract is guaranteed. Brees will make an astounding $40 million in the first year of the deal, and a total of $60 million, all of the guaranteed money, in the first three years of the contract. Additional financial details are expected to be revealed.

Earlier in the spring, the Saints tendered Brees a franchise tag offer, setting off a protracted, sometimes tense, back-and-forth between the two sides as Brees angled for a long-term contract. Monday, July 16, was the deadline for signing franchised players to a long-term extension.

Brees, speaking from the ESPY awards this week, insisted he’s confident a deal gets done.

The Associated Press reported the deal will be in the neighborhood of $100 million over five years, but the sticking point is the amount of guaranteed money. Brees will make more than $16 million in 2012 under the franchise tag and over $23 million in 2013 if he’s tagged again. That puts his potential two-year earnings with the franchise tag at just under $40 million, which is probably where the guaranteed money conversation is.

The two sides are more than $10 million apart in guaranteed money on what The Associated Press calls a five-year contract worth about $100 million. There’s no indication whether they’ll be able to close the gap before Monday’s deadline.

So two years of franchise tags for Brees would mean roughly $39 million, which is where the guaranteed money conversation should start between the two sides.

Brees hasn’t signed his franchise tender yet and, according to a new report from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, has no plans to report to training camp without a long-term deal. If it wasn’t clear before, Brees is putting some pressure on the Saints to get a deal done.

As recently as the last couple of weeks, Brees has said he’s confident a long-term deal will get done.

The NFL Players Association released a statement Tuesday praising the arbitrator who ruled in favor of Drew Brees in his grievance with the New Orleans Saints over his franchise tag designation. Brees argued that he was being franchised for the second time in his career, the first being while he was in San Diego, and that a third franchise tag in 2013 would entitle him to a 144 percent pay increase under the collective bargaining agreement.

In the statement, the NFLPA said that “this ruling will help all Franchise Players in the future,” and that hopefully it will help Brees and the Saints as they negotiate a long term deal for the quarterback.

An arbitrator ruled in favor of Brees on Tuesday, meaning another franchise tag from the Saints in 2013 would qualify as the third time he’s been franchised. That means a third franchise tag would be a 144 percent increase in pay in 2013. Also of significance is that a player can only be franchised three times, which means the Saints could only use it on him one more time in 2013.

Brees believes the Saints could franchise him again in 2013 if the two sides don’t reach a long-term deal. His argument, which was presented to arbitrator Stephen Burbank last week, is that because of the Chargers tag seven years ago, the Saints franchising him in 2013 would actually be the third time he’s franchised. A third franchise tag means a 144 percent increase in pay from the previous season, which would put Brees’ 2013 franchise tag number at approximately $23.5 million.

The outcome of the grievance ruling should set the bar fairly well for any contract negotiations with Brees going forward.

For all news and information regarding the New Orleans Saints, please visit Canal Street Chronicles.

Brees did not participate in any Saints offseason workouts as he continues his hold out for a long-term contract extension. In the interview, Brees reiterated that he would like to stay, and even raise his kids in New Orleans. If he isn’t signed by July 15, he will have to play the 2012 season under the one-year franchise tag or skip the season altogether.

For all news and information regarding the New Orleans Saints, please visit Canal Street Chronicles.

The Associated Press reports that the Saints have made a new offer to Brees, according to an anonymous source close to the situation.

Brees has interest in returning to New Orleans but has been unimpressed with the initial contract offers by the Saints. Brees held out of OTAs and this week’s minicamp while waiting to work out a new deal. If he is able to come to an agreement with the team over the weekend, he could potentially make the last week of Saints voluntary practices next week.

A radio report in New Orleans said that a new deal could be reached by as early as Friday morning or as late as Monday. The New Orleans Times-Picayune and others disagree with that report.

Brees has to sign a long-term contract by July 15 or he’ll have to play the 2012 season under the one-year franchise tag (or not play at all). So consider July 15 as the real deadline in this negotiation and it seems unlikely we’d see a deal until sometime closer to that date.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk reports that many of the rumored figures that have been reported on both sides of the story may have been exaggerated.

Brees acknowledged that many of the numbers he has seen in reports are “heavily inflated,” but no significant progress toward signing a new deal has been made.

Head coach Joe Vitt -- who is filling in for the suspended Sean Payton -- feels “confident” that Brees will attend training camp under the franchise tag. Vitt spoke with Ian Rapoport of NFL.com and had this to say about the situation:

For all news and information regarding the New Orleans Saints, please visit Canal Street Chronicles.

Last season’s Offensive Player of the Year told Deke Bellavia of WWL that the Saints have been unresponsive to attempts from his side to forge a new deal. Listeners could hear the dismay in Brees’ voice. The most telling quote from the interview was this one:

You can listen to the complete interview with WWL here.

Brees is skipping offseason workouts until an extension can be hashed out. Last week, general manager Mickey Loomis tried to deflect attention away from eavesdropping accusations by saying that the Saints were focusing their efforts towards making Brees happy. Schefter’s tweet indicates that a rather large gulf still exists between both parties.

For all news and information regarding the New Orleans Saints, please visit Canal Street Chronicles.

Loomis said that he welcomed an investigation into the eavesdropping claims, saying he has never done anything like that in his nearly 30 years in the league.

He also said that he respects NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to suspend him eight games due to the bounty scandal. He is under the same rules as Sean Payton, which prohibit him from speaking with team employees during his suspension.

On Monday, fans will get a glaring reminder that football is a business, just in case the lesson of last year’s lockout failed to drive that point home. Offseason workouts start and so do player holdouts. More than a few of the game’s biggest names will not be on the field Monday, sitting out as a statement of their worth and plying a little leverage toward a bigger and better contract.

To fans high on spring’s hopefulness, a holdout looks like a road hazard on the way to the promised land. The negotiating tactic is naturally greeted with a reaction somewhere along a spectrum between indifference at the rigmarole of contract negotiations and outrage.

Prior to Benson’s press conference on Friday, it was reported that Brees would not be signing his franchise tag tender and he would not be participating in the Saints workouts absent a longterm deal. So Benson saying the two sides were “close” did come out of the blue.

The start of the Saints offseason program will be centered on conditioning, so Brees could potentially miss that with few issues. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports the deadline may really come in May.

Benson was conducting a press conference to announce the purchase of the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets and the first question was, of course, about his football team. That Benson says the two sides are “close” to a deal is great news for the Saints, who could use some good news this offseason.

Brees’ deal is expected to be among the richest deals in NFL history. He signed a six-year contract with the Saints back in 2006 and played through that entire contract. He should move into a new level of pay, possibly in the $20 million per year range.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, there have been no recent contract talks between the Saints and Brees. As such, it’s unlikely that the superstar quarterback will be making it to the Saints offseason practices that begin on Monday.

Brees was given the franchise tag by the Saints, but has not signed it as of yet. He is reportedly very unhappy he was not given a long-term deal before the franchise tag deadline arrived. Until he signs his tender, he will not be authorized to participate in any team activities.

Players designated as a team’s franchisee make the average of the five highest salaries at their position for one year, a number that won’t be determined until the end of free agency though, at the moment, it appears to be between $16 million and $17 million for a quarterback, according to the NFL.

For all news and information regarding the New Orleans Saints, please visit Canal Street Chronicles. For complete coverage of football free agency, stay tuned to SB Nation’s dedicated NFL hub.