Sean Payton anticipates Drew Brees’ retirement decision ‘in the next week or two’

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton expects to hear from QB Drew Brees on his looming retirement decision after Super Bowl LV is finished.

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The week leading up to the Super Bowl normally revolves around media night and the trips coaches and star players make through “radio row,” appearing on sports talk shows and podcasts in between television interviews. But with so much business conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was able to put together back-to-back media spots on Wednesday while previewing the offseason.

And no plotline is more important for the Saints than Drew Brees’ looming decision on retirement. Previous media reports have said Brees is preparing to hang up his cleats, but the franchise quarterback hasn’t confirmed anything publicly one way or another. But Payton expects that to change soon.

“Yeah, look, I think that’s coming in the next week or two,” Payton said on the “Pick Six Podcast” with CBS Sports analyst Will Brinson. “Last offseason there was a lot of time spent, he spent a lot of time. There’s a lot of wear and tear these years, especially at that position. I think that’s something that, within the next week or week and a half, he’s going to want to address and announce.”

Payton explained that he and his staff have spent the weeks since their season ended evaluating their roster, self-scouting each player so they can make informed decision moving forwards. And he likes how his quarterbacks room shapes up for 2021: “Taysom Hill who is in the building, Jameis [Winston] who’s now a free agent who we hope to sign sooner than later, we have a pretty good vision with those players. I think within the next week we’ll know a little bit more.”

It makes sense for everyone to take their time here. Brees can really hunker down and settle on a decision he won’t regret or second-guess. The Saints can give him the appropriate platform to share his decision with the media, and likely look back on a long career that’s soon drawing to a close. And waiting until after Super Bowl LV has wrapped up frees up the airwaves for Brees to make his own media tour on radio shows and podcasts around the NFL’s orbit before riding off into the sunset.

That’s assuming he is retiring, as expected, of course. Maybe Brees is preparing to throw another curve ball and take one more run at that elusive second Super Bowl trophy.

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