Drew Brees Contract: Latest News and Rumors on Negotiations with Saints

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is set to be an unrestricted free agent in 2018, per Spotrac, but he said he isn't "seeking" a contract extension in an interview with Maggie Gray of Sports Illustrated.

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Brees Comments on Contract Situation and Priorities

Wednesday, Feb. 8

Brees said he wasn't looking for the extension and instead had his focus on one thing heading in to the 2017 season, per Gray: "All I am focused on is winning football games this year. I don't want to think about anything beyond this year."

While the Purdue product is singularly focused on the upcoming campaign, that doesn't mean he is planning on retiring anytime soon. He recently said, "I got a few more [years] at least" on Good Morning Football (h/t Michael Kaskey-Blomain of 247Sports).

Whether those few years are in a Saints uniform or not remain to be seen, but there is more than just football to consider with Brees. He is the face of the franchise in New Orleans, won a Super Bowl there and is a major part of the community with his charities and history as a healing figure as the city recovered from Hurricane Katrina.

Dieter Kurtenbach of Fox Sports wrote: "Brees is the New Orleans Saints. He'll be the first player mentioned when you invoke the team's name in the years to come—he's the kind of player that winds up with a statue outside the main gate of the stadium."

Brees' time as a Saint may be limited with his contract situation and the fact he is 38 years old, but it is impossible to question the production.

He threw for 5,208 yards and 37 touchdowns in 2016 and has surpassed 4,000 passing yards all 11 seasons with the Saints. He continues to consistently be one of the best statistical quarterbacks in the league:

Season	Games	Passing Yards	Passing TDs
2006	16	4,418	26
2007	16	4,423	28
2008	16	5,069	34
2009	15	4,388	34
2010	16	4,620	33
2011	16	5,476	46
2012	16	5,177	43
2013	16	5,162	39
2014	16	4,952	33
2015	15	4,870	32
2016	16	5,208	37

Despite Brees' individual brilliance, the Saints have gone through three straight losing seasons and haven't been past the NFC Divisional Round since their Super Bowl title in the 2009 season. Defense is largely the issue, and they finished 27th in the league in yards allowed per game and 31st in points allowed per game in 2016.

The argument against giving Brees—who has a cap hit of $19 million in 2017, per Spotrac—an extension is the financial wiggle room it would provide New Orleans to improve that defense and fully start a rebuild after its recent slide.

Still, Tom Brady just won a Super Bowl at age 39, and Brees has been nothing but productive in recent seasons. All those factors will be weighed when the topic of the extension comes up, but Brees stressed that it can wait because he is only focused on winning in the 2017 season.