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Brees Officially Announces His Retirement; What Next For Saints?
The game's most prolific passer of all-time is calling it a career.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, whose 80,358 yards passing stand as the most in the history of the NFL, is retiring after 20 seasons.
Following a lengthy wait following the end of the Saints' season, Brees announced his retirement Sunday via social media.
"After 20 years as a player in the NFL and 15 years as a Saint, it is time I retire from the game of football," Brees wrote on his verified Instagram account. "Each day, I poured my heart & soul into being your Quarterback. Til the very end, I exhausted myself to give everything I had to the Saints organization, my team, and the great city of New Orleans. We shared some amazing moments together, many of which are emblazoned in our hearts and minds and will forever be a part of us. You have molded me, strengthened me, inspired me, and given me a lifetime of memories. My goal for the last 15 years was striving to give to you everything you had given to me and more.
"I am only retiring from playing football, I am not retiring from New Orleans. This is not goodbye, rather a new beginning. Now my real life's work begins!"
The Saints released the following on their social media accounts:
"You came to us at our lowest point.
"You led us to our highest.
"You represented our state, city, and team with incredible professionalism, class, and toughness.
"We are forever grateful for the immeasurable impact you and your family had on this city. ..."
The retirement comes 15 years to the day after Brees signed a six-year, $60 million deal with the Saints. He began his playing career as a second-round pick of the Chargers, 20 years ago.
It has been reported that Brees will join NBC. He previously has said that he plans to try his hand at several different things in his post-playing career.
Brees finished his career with a record of 172-114 as a starting quarterback in the regular season and 9-9 in the postseason. He was 142-86 and 9-8 in 15 years with the Saints, where his partnership with Sean Payton produced some of the most spectacular offensive eras the game has seen.
Brees threw for more than 5,000 yards in a season five different times -- no other quarterback has done it more than once. He holds the top three single-season completion percentages in NFL history and six of the top nine.
Brees has ranked among the NFL's top 10 passers in ESPN's Total QBR metric in all 15 seasons since it was created in 2006; a streak of six years longer than any other quarterback in that span.
Though he never won a regular-season MVP award, Brees finished second a record four times.
Meanwhile, fantasy nation is wondering what's next for the Saints.
Or more specifically, who's next?
His decision to retire leaves either Taysom Hill, Jameis Winston or a quarterback to be named later as next man up.
Adding to the intrigue there, the Saints are restructuring Taysom Hill's contract to create cap room. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the details are great: Hill gets a 4-year, $140 million contract extension - but all years are voidable and it's a mechanism to free up cap space this year.
Hill's contract numbers this year include a $9.686 million signing bonus, a $1.439 million guaranteed roster bonus and a $1.034 million guaranteed base salary, plus incentives, per source.
It saves Saints over $7.5 million against cap this year.
As ESPN.com's Mike Triplett notes, Hill remains unproven as a 30-year-old dual-threat quarterback with limited experience. However, he did go 3-1 as a starter in place of Brees this season with four TD passes, four TD runs, two interceptions and three lost fumbles in that four-game stretch.
Winston, meanwhile, is an unsigned free agent. But he chose to come to New Orleans last summer on a minimal contract so that he would have the chance to learn under Payton and Brees and possibly revive his career as Brees' successor. And Payton recently made it clear that the Saints want to re-sign him and allow him to compete for the starting job.
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports the Saints will begin working on to keep Winston, perhaps with a contract that could look a lot like the deal Cam Newton just signed in New England.
Although Payton chose Hill as Brees' replacement in the short term in 2020, he has insisted that the team is high on Winston's potential. And Payton has repeatedly insisted that he believes "our next quarterback's in the building" -- whether that be Hill or Winston.
We'll all be watching for more on that as free agency plays out in coming days.