The last time the Saints and Drew Brees hammered out a contract, they went through this long offseason charade of pretending to play out the franchise tag. The , even if they waited until . Now things are different, for both sides.Brees is older (he turned 37 in January) but Jarrett Allen Jersey he led the league in pa sing yards last season and the quarterback market is generating crazy money for middling quarterbacks. The Saints also don't have the franchise tag leverage they had in the summer of 2012.The market truly is insane: Sam Bradford got $35 million over two years (basically a one-year, $22 million deal with an option). You think Brees is going to play for $20 million a year? He's not. In fact, and agent Tom Condon -- who negotiated the Bradford deal with the Eagles -- are looking for something in the range of $100 million over four years, with $65 million guaranteed. Whatever deal happens might wait until next offseason -- Robinson reports the Saints are willing to play out the string when it comes to Brees' contract and see how he looks in 2016 before committing to additional years. As Robinson points out, you pay him right before he Jamal Crawford Jersey drops off a cliff and you cripple your franchise for several years. There is a looming po sibility that Brees could have an expeditious decline in play, potentially as soon as next season. If the Saints lock themselves into guaranteed money comparable (or exceeding) the $65 million given to Rivers or Eli Manning last year, cap economics suggest it's a minimum three-year commitment. Should Brees experience a sudden decline similar to the one experienced by Peyton Manning with the Broncos, he would e sentially be uncuttable through the 2018 season and his 40th birthday.And if Brees is good the Saints can just pay him. Part of the problem for New Orleans, however, is Brees' status with Buck Williams Jersey the franchise tag.Brees was tagged by the Chargers when he played for San Diego and then later had New Orleans apply the tag as well. As , with Brees having already been tagged twice, he would see a ma sive spike in his single-year cost if the Saints wanted to use the tag again. In fact, his franchise tag number would be calculated by multiplying his 2016 cap number by . The newest CBA rules set up a third franchise tag to be (theoretically) prohibitive -- Brees' cap hit is $30 million this year so his franchise tender in 2017 would be a whopping $43.2 million (44 percent of $30 million is $13.2 million for Wilson Chandler Jersey you math majors).The Saints could offer him that tender -- and hope he doesn't tear his ACL sprinting to sign it -- but then they'd really be over a barrel, with Brees more than willing to play a single season for an insane amount of money. Meanwhile, New Orleans can be wishy-washy about wanting to give Brees a bunch of guaranteed money, but the stark reality is his minimum negotiating number for guaranteed money is $43.2 million. It's not even a big stretch for Condon to work his way up to $65 million once you tack on a couple of contract years. Brees Nicolas Claxton Jersey is very much in a contract year and there is very much a large amount of money at stake.