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Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints agreed to terms of a new contract this week. The two-year, $50 million deal that Brees signed is well beneath market value for a starting quarterback of his caliber. Of course, that was by design, not just on Brees’ part, but also that of the Saints front office. This new contract frees up significant cap space for 2020.
Brees appears to have signed one of the more team-friendly deals compared to other starting quarterback contracts handed out this season. For example, Tennessee Titans passer Ryan Tannehill signed a four-year, $118 million extension at an average of $29.5 million per year. Tannehill was able to parlay his 12 starts in 2019 (where he threw for just 2,742 yards, with 22 touchdowns against 6 interceptions) into an impressive payday. With that level of cash being thrown at a quarterback with Tannehill’s resume, it would only figure that Brees could have secured the same or more on the open market.
Closer to age and experience with Brees is Philip Rivers, the new starting quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. Despite a worrisome down year in 2019 with the Los Angeles Chargers, Rivers was able to come to terms with the Colts on a one-year, $25 million contract. The money is essentially the same for Brees and Rivers, however in just 11 games Brees was able to score 27 touchdowns en route to a 116.3 rating.
On the other hand, Rivers only managed 23 touchdown throws while giving up 20 interceptions. He posted an underwhelming 88.5 average over the course of an entire 16 game season. The past record of quality and production that Brees brings to New Orleans is far superior to that of which Rivers will bring to Indianapolis. Again, the Saints have easily come out ahead in this comparison.
Finally, the quarterback who is most closely related to Brees in terms of experience, accomplishments, and age is Tom Brady. The legendary New England Patriots quarterback signed with the NFC South-rivals Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Friday morning. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Brady and the Buccaneers agreed to a two-year deal paying out around $30 million in each season. In a similar, but nowhere near as severe fashion as Rivers, Brady also experienced a downturn in 2019. Yet Brady was able to secure what is a market-average deal for someone of his caliber.
Brees has once again taken a team-friendly deal in order to help his team run it back one more time and try to win another Super Bowl. Compared to a relatively unproven starter (Tannehill), a quarterback with questions marks (Rivers), and a rival record-setter (Brady), New Orleans came out ahead on this deal.
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