Drew Brees announced his retirement some time ago, but the end of his playing career only became official on Friday.
The Saints placed Brees on the reserve/retired list in a move that was delayed for reasons related to the salary cap. By waiting until after June 1 to put Brees on the list, the Saints were able to gain a nice chunk of cap space because they could split the amount of dead money on the cap between this season and 2022.
Brees will account for $11.15 million under the cap in each season. Prior to retiring, Brees also cut his $25 million salary for 2021 to the league minimum in February and created almost $24 million in cap space for the Saints to use this offseason.
The Saints still had to restructure cornerback Marshon Lattimore’s deal to sign their draft picks, which shows how tight they’ve been to the salary cap this season and how much worse it would have been without the maneuvers involving Brees on his way out of town.