After signing a two-year deal with the New Orleans Saints in March, Drew Brees, many assumed, would play through the 2021 season.
Well, that assumption may no longer be safe.
On Wednesday, Saints head coach Sean Payton said that Brees announced he’s “coming back for his final season.” Thus, that two-year deal could be a two-year deal in name only.
Tiki Barber isn’t surprised – and no one else should be, either.
“Are you surprised Drew Brees would only play one more season?” Barber asked on Tiki & Tierney. “When he signed his two-year deal . . . you really just do that for flexibility’s sake. It’s really just so you don’t bang all the money on the cap on one season. I’m sure there’s some options thrown into that as well, so it’s really just for the sake of accounting. But he wanted to run it back.”
The Saints have won the NFC South three years in a row. In fact, they have finished 13-3 in each of the last two seasons. Unfortunately for them, they haven’t been able to get back to the Super Bowl.
“He’s got a pretty good team around him, as we’ve seen over and over again, but they haven’t been able to break through,” Barber said. “A lot of it has been crappy circumstances deep into the postseason, but he feels like he can still do it for another year. If he can’t do it for two, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m not surprised by that one iota. We already know he was contemplating retiring and getting into the booth anyways this offseason. We know that cliche – once you start thinking about it, you’re already there.
“So this doesn’t surprise me at all,” Barber continued, “even if it was a quote-unquote mistake by Sean Payton.”