The Saints entered the offseason amid speculation about coach Sean Payton leaving for another team, but he remains with the team after discussions with General Manager Mickey Loomis last week.
Loomis said Thursday that he never had a discussion about making a trade with another team that wanted Payton as their head coach and it doesn’t sound like he’s given much thought to life without Drew Brees either. The quarterback currently carries a cap hit of $30 million for the 2016 season, but Loomis said that’s not going to stand in the way of Brees returning for an 11th season in New Orleans.
“I know this: Drew’s going to be our quarterback,” Loomis said, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “We’ll figure out how we’re going to handle the contract, whether it stays the same and just remains right in place, or whether we do something different. That’s all part of what we’ve got to figure out in the coming weeks.”
Loomis said the team’s cap situation is “not as dire” as people think it is and that he has looked at deals for other quarterbacks to prepare for possible extension talks. If they did reach agreement on an extension, it would lessen Brees’ cap burden next season and allow the Saints to use words other than “dire” as the baseline for their salary cap.