The Saints have options at QB. Should they accept the status quo with Drew Brees?

New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis has made the team’s position perfectly clear. If free agent quarterback Drew Brees wishes to continue his stellar NFL career with the Black and Gold, then “we’d love to have (him) back.’‘

I believe Loomis to be sincere, both from a personal and business standpoint.

But, at what cost? That is the mega-million dollar question.

According to Spotrac, Brees’ calculated market value in 2020 is $36.5 million or $73.1 million over two years. And I have no reason to dispute their calculations.

But, hell will freeze before the Saints enter into an agreement of that magnitude with a 41-year-old quarterback, even if that 41-year-old quarterback happens to be named Drew Christopher Brees.

Read my lips: It ain’t gonna happen.

Making Teddy Bridgewater the NFL’s highest-paid backup quarterback at age 27 was one thing. But making Brees the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback at 41 is quite another, no matter how many NFL records he holds or what his legacy says.

And that’s the quandary Saints officials find themselves in as the 2019 season winds down with Super Bowl LIV and the new league calendar on the horizon.

They now must deal with the elephant in the room after their “Super Bowl or Bust’‘ approach fell woefully short of its intended goal.

Who will play quarterback in 2020 and beyond? Brees, Bridgewater or the wild card in all of this, gadget man Taysom Hill?

When it comes to this off-season topic, I sense growing angst inside Who Dat Nation, largely because of how the season ended with the 26-20 loss in overtime to the underdog Minnesota Vikings on Wildcard Weekend at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

I’m not so sure the vast majority of Saints fans want to keep things status quo at quarterback next season. In other words, it might be time to move on from Brees and hand the ball to Hill, Bridgewater or some other shinier object in the NFL draft.

This is a personnel/salary cap problem most NFL teams would love to have. But it’s still a problem, one that likely won’t get resolved until Brees decides if he’s in or out. Once that happens, the dominoes should fall.

If I were to handicap the Saints QB Derby, I’d make:

▪ Brees a heavy favorite to return for his 20th season at a hometown discount, probably south of $30 million per.

▪ Hill even odds to re-up with a hefty raise as a restricted free agent and remain in his current role as gadget man and change-of-pace quarterback.

▪ And Bridgewater a gone pecan, vamoosing for greener pastures and an opportunity to start elsewhere.

All bets are off if Brees shocks the world and announces his retirement before the start of free agency March 18. I don’t think he will but stranger things have happened.

I was intrigued by Russell Wilson’s decision to vacate his starting role at quarterback and let Brees open under center for the NFC in the Pro Bowl. A show of respect, perhaps, or does Wilson know something we don’t?

Then, too, Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were among nine passengers who died in a fiery helicopter crash just hours before the start of the Pro Bowl. Players came on the field with that tragic news still resonating.

Bryant was 41, same age as Brees, who’s the father of four young children, including 11-year-old Baylen.

I suspect that eerie coincidence might have had a chilling, lasting effect on No. 9.

This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 12:02 PM.