{"id":1240,"date":"2012-07-17T20:46:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T01:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saints247.net\/?p=1240"},"modified":"2012-07-17T20:46:57","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T01:46:57","slug":"how-does-the-brees-contract-impact-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/2012\/07\/how-does-the-brees-contract-impact-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does the Brees Contract Impact the Future?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The contract dispute that was never supposed to happen ended with a sudden, joyous thud on Friday afternoon. In what might turn out to be one of the most important signings in franchise history, Drew Brees agreed to a 5 year\/$100 million deal with the New Orleans Saints<\/a>, making him the highest paid player in league history on a yearly average basis. Although the negotiations were seemingly tense at times, both parties had nothing but good things to say of one another after the agreement was reached.<\/p>\n

Even with the Brees contract resolved, there are still many unanswered questions for the upcoming season and the future vitality of this team.<\/p>\n

How does the new contract impact the salary cap?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is probably the biggest question on everyone\u2019s mind moving forward. Before the signing, Pro Football Talk had the Saints at a mere $2.12 million. After the contract was signed, however, that figure jumped to more than $8 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Andrew Brandt did a superb job breaking down the entire contract<\/a> last week. Some interesting pieces from that article:<\/p>\n

Brees will receive a staggering $37 million signing bonus, to be paid in full \tover \tthe next six months. And for the 2012 season, Brees will receive a salary of $3 \tmillion, bringing his 2012 earnings to $40 million. This represents the highest \tone-year earnings in the NFL.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The base salary of $3 million makes the cap number friendly for the Saints. The $8 million figure allows New Orleans to make another move if someone gets hurt during training camp, if another team cuts a player the Saints have a genuine interest in, or to maybe re-negotiate another contract currently on the team\u2019s payroll.<\/p>\n

More from Brandt, this time on the 2013 salary cap impact:<\/p>\n

When the 2013 waiver period begins after the Super Bowl — held in New Orleans \tthis year — the Saints will have three days to release Brees.<\/p>\n

If the Saints do not release him, a $15 million guarantee activates — $10 million \tin 2013 and $5 million in 2014.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The guaranteed money, as reported by the Associated Press<\/a>, was a sticking point in the contract negotiations.<\/p>\n

There are similar escalations in pay for the last three years of the contract, per Brandt:<\/p>\n

Similar to 2013, the Saints will have three days to either release Brees — letting \thim walk with $55 million earned over two seasons — or activate another $5 \tmillion guaranteed.<\/p>\n

There are similar triggers relating to the remaining $39 million of the contract — \t$19 million in Year 4 and $20 million in Year 5.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The contract is back loaded, and the cap hit increases significantly as the deal comes to its endpoint. The signing bonus of $37 million is divided equally over the length of the contract, reaching an average of $7.4 million per year.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the overall cap hit for Brees over the next five seasons is as follows:<\/p>\n

2012 = $10.4 million<\/p>\n

2013 = $17.4 million<\/p>\n

2014 = $18.4 million<\/p>\n

2015 = $26.4 million<\/p>\n

2016 = $27.4 million<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grand Total = 5 years\/$100 million<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Brees\u2019 salary cap impact significantly increases as time goes on. However, the league\u2019s salary cap will increase in step with revenue. This year\u2019s cap, set at $120.6 million<\/a>, will go up; it\u2019s hard at this juncture to determine Brees\u2018 percentage of that figure moving forward.<\/p>\n

How does the contract affect Jimmy Graham?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The next looming contract impasse for the Saints might come when emerging superstar TE Jimmy Graham\u2019s rookie deal comes to an end. Graham is due to make $540,000 this season in base salary; something tells me he will want a raise, and rightfully so. Graham is due to become a free agent in 2014 if a new deal is not reached.<\/p>\n

This past offseason, Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski set the market for emerging tight ends by signing an 6 year\/$54 million contract extentsion, keeping him in New England until 2020. The $9 million per year average kicks in for the 2014 season, after Gronkowski\u2019s rookie deal expires.<\/p>\n

Graham will certainly try to reach that $9 million dollar per year range, if not more. In order to retain Graham, the Saints will have to do some maneuvering with the roster. Brees\u2018 cap numbers after 2014 increase past $20 million, making any long-term, big money deals harder to accomplish.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the Saints will resign Graham – either as an\u00a0extension\u00a0(a la Gronkowski), or outright when his rookie contract expires. Either way, cap space will most likely need to be created.<\/p>\n

The most likely candidates to get cut in 2013\/14? Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma.<\/p>\n

Smith is due to make $9 million in 2013 and $10.4 million in 2014. The 2014 salary is predicated on a team option, which will probably get declined if Smith\u2019s production to remain average. He registered 6.5 sacks last season, and hopefully that number will go up this year. The Saints, however, have emerging options at defensive end. Second year player Cameron Jordan will get more opportunities this season. Martez Wilson has moved from linebacker to defensive end, and has gotten a ton of praise from coaches during off-season workouts.<\/p>\n

Vilma might be another victim of a tight salary cap in the future. He is due to make $4.8 million in 2013, but his injury history, increasing age, and the Saints\u2018 new depth at linebacker might make Vilma an expendable component of the defense. Vilma, who will sit out the 2012 season because of the bounty program, might have been a candidate for the \u201cphysically unable to perform\u201d (PUP) list this year due to knee issues from last season. He turned 30 in April, which isn\u2019t old by any stretch of the imagination, but last year\u2019s injury problems aged him in the eyes of many. Add to that the incoming plethora of talent at linebacker – Chris Chamberlain, David Hawthorne, and Curtis Lofton will be very good this season – and Vilma has a tough time justifying his roster spot in the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The contract dispute that was never supposed to happen ended with a sudden, joyous thud on Friday afternoon. In what might turn out to be one of the most important signings in franchise history, Drew Brees agreed to a 5 year\/$100 million deal with the New Orleans Saints, making him the highest paid player in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[18,31,55,140],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-brees","tag-contract","tag-graham","tag-salary-cap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}