Saints, Drew Brees restructuring contract to free up salary cap
The Saints are one step closer to getting under the salary cap, according to a Friday night report. As first reported by Jason Fitzgerald at Over the Cap, the team has renegotiated Drew Brees’ contract to free up nearly $24 million for the 2021 deficit. The move lowers his base salary to a little less than $1 million.
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By bringing his salary down to the minimum the Saints will be able to hold his salary cap charge at $12.225 million while Brees ultimately decides his own future. If he retires the Saints can then hold him on the roster until June 1 and then place him on the retired list on June 2nd, allowing them to split his $22.65 million in dead money across two years- $11.15 million in 2021 and $11.5 million in 2022.
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This was one of the biggest pieces to move for the Saints, as you looked at in the team’s top salary cap hits of the new season. Brees counted for $36.15 million ($25 million base + $5.75 million signing bonus + $5.4 million restructure bonus). Of course, we await the official word on whether or not Brees decides to hang it up this offseason, and Sean Payton alluded to it possibly coming within the next two weeks.
