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Brees Will Return For 2020 Season; What About Hill, Bridgewater?
Drew Brees announced he will return for the 2020 season.

Brees made the announcement via Instagram with the following statement: "My feelings about the 2020 season! I look forward to the grind and the journey, for the reward at the end will be worth it!!! Love you #WhoDatNation. Let's make another run at it!"

Although he missed five games with a thumb injury in 2019, Brees, the NFL's career leader in touchdown passes and passing yards, captained the Saints to another NFC South title before third-seeded New Orleans was upset by the sixth-seeded Vikings in the NFC Wild Card Round.

Brees, who turned 41 last month, led the NFL with a 74.3 completion percentage this past season and had 2,979 yards and 27 touchdown passes in 11 games.

The Saints are in an interesting position now, as they hope to hang onto restricted free agent gadget player Taysom Hill. Like Brees, backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater’s also an unrestricted free agent.

Head coach Sean Payton needed all three quarterbacks to make it through 2019.

Each served their own purpose, with Brees continuing as the veteran face of the franchise, Bridgewater filling in for the injured Brees (while winning all his starts) and Hill serving as a Swiss Army knife.

The result was a collaborative effort to help the Saints to a 13-3 mark.

Payton raved about Bridgewater's play in place of Brees shortly after the season ended, and said he believed Hill will eventually "find himself as a starting quarterback in the NFL."

Remember, Brees recently told Jane Slater of NFL Network that he has no intention of playing for any team other than the Saints. Beyond that, Jay Glazer of FOXSports reported in January that Payton believes Hill is ready to become the Saints’ franchise quarterback as soon as Brees retires.

The problem for the Saints is that they only have about $12 million in cap space for 2020, and that makes it financially difficult to afford to keep both Brees and Hill.

According to PFT’s Mike Florio, the speculation is the Saints may put a first-round tender on Hill and then wait to see whether some team makes him an offer. If that were to happen, the Saints would have to decide whether to match that offer or to take that team’s first-round draft pick.

While it seems like a reach to believe Bridgewater will command the $30 million a year that's being reported as a possibility this week, it's hard to imagine the Saints being able to keep him at this point.

Whatever the case, Brees' announcement combined with the Saints' salary cap issues will make the month leading up to the free-agent signing period even more interesting.