As the football-following world tries to process the impact of Tom Brady’s new contract on future quarterback contracts, one of the most important quarterback contracts will continue to be negotiated as soon as today.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, talks are expected to resume on Tuesday or Wednesday.
While Brady’s below-market extension can be explained away as an apples-and-orange comparison to the second contract of a quarterback whose contract his team allowed to expire, there’s a lesson embedded in the Brady deal that Flacco and every other franchise quarterback should heed.
In the universe of a large flat salary cap, quarterbacks can’t consume $20 million or more of the cap space -- if a competitive team is to be fielded. The problem is that too many quarterbacks (from Matthew Stafford to Eli Manning to Peyton Manning to Ben Roethlisberger to Drew Brees) are above or close to the $20 million un-magic number.
Flacco’s agent, Joe Linta, has told PFT Live that, while Flacco wants to be paid, he’s willing to structure the deal in a cap-friendly way. And while that’s good news for 2013 and 2014, the cap dollars eventually have to be accounted for.
Indeed, Brees cap number in 2015 will be $26.4 million. There’s no way the Saints can be competitive if they carry that much cap space with one player.