There’s an elephant in the room, and New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton is aware of it. Payton held his end-of-year press conference on Tuesday, and took some time to acknowledge a complicated Saints quarterback situation.
Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater will be unrestricted free agents in March. Taysom Hill is going to be a restricted free agent. Payton admitted that, in a perfect world, all three quarterbacks would be retained in 2020. But that may not be a realistic situation, and he knows there’s a real chance one or two of his passers won’t return next season.
Brees is the biggest domino. The future Hall of Fame inductee played well after returning from an early-season hand injury, but his struggles in the playoffs loss to the Minnesota Vikings were disquieting. It’s anyone’s guess whether Brees will retire, but Payton passed on the opportunity to try and read his quarterback’s mind. All he can do is guess.
“I can’t speak for him, but I think he wants to play more,” Payton said during his end-of-year conference call. “We just saw him play at a very high level.”
While Brees hasn’t given Payton a firm indication either way, the Saints coach isn’t expecting a letter of resignation or anything dramatic: “I don’t anticipate this grandiose meeting and phone call soon.”
This is a decision Brees will want to take some time to decide. He’s spoken before about how this stage of his career is being played on borrowed time, and that his next pass could be his last. He and the Saints are acutely aware that their Super Bowl window is narrowing. Whenever he does decide what he’ll be doing next year, the Saints will have to move quickly not just on his contract, but deals with Hill and Bridgewater. It’s shaping up to be another eventful Saints offseason.
