Brees ‘agrees’ to 2-year deal with Saints
NEW ORLEANS: New Orleans Saints star quarterback Drew Brees agreed to a two-year contract worth approximately US$50 million, multiple media outlets reported on Tuesday.
The $25 million per season average is the same value as the previous deal he signed with New Orleans in 2018.
Brees, who announced earlier this month that he planned to return to the Saints, is the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdown passes. He was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent yesterday.
The 41-year-old veteran started 11 games and completed 74.3 percent of his passes for 2,979 yards, 27 touchdowns and four interceptions in 2019. He missed five games with a thumb injury.
Including 14 seasons with New Orleans and five with the then-San Diego Chargers, he has thrown for 77,416 yards and 547 touchdowns in 275 games (274 starts).
Later on Tuesday, the Saints reportedly restructured a pair of existing contracts for additional salary-cap relief, linebacker Kiko Alonso and cornerback Patrick Robinson.
Alonso, 29, will take a pay cut in 2020 from his original $8.7 million cap figure, although the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that the seven-year veteran can match that total through incentives.
He is recovering from a torn left ACL sustained in New Orleans’ playoff loss against Minnesota in January. He missed the entire 2014 season with Buffalo due to a similar injury to the same knee, and also tore his right ACL while in college at Oregon.
The reworked terms for Robinson, 32, were not released, but he likely also took less money to retain his job on the team after playing just 14 games with one start in his two seasons with the Saints.
Robinson has become mostly a reserve and special teams player, but he would have carried cap figures of $6 million per season for both 2020 and 2021, per Over The Cap.