The New Orleans Saints made a stunning trade with Jimmy Graham as free agency opened and now some reports have Drew Brees as a potential trade option, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a possible partner for the number one overall pick and the chance to take Jameis Winston, but there is likely no chance this actually goes down in 2015.
After Graham was traded, some reports came out on Twitter that Brees could be shopped in a trade, with NewOrleans.suntimes.com picking up on some of the talk. Some media members, including Michael Bailey and Andrew Siciliano wrote about the rumors and SB Nation also picked up on things, speculating about what a deal could look like. Also, chill fans, we are not saying this will happen, but it has been coming up and has been reported on, so here is what has been coming out about a potential move (which would be very tough with the money no matter what).
Adding to the grumblings was a speculative article by Aaron Schatz on ESPN, who wrote a column about the Saints possibly tanking and called it the "case for trading Drew Brees". The column brought up possibilities about making the move and with Graham traded, some see it as something that easily could come up as the offseason moves along.
SB Nation writes, and this can't be stressed enough, there aren't any actual sources saying a deal is happening or is likely going down, but there is plenty of talk about it. The Saints are in a tough spot and now that they have traded Graham, they could look at blowing it all up and rebuilding. The team has $26.4 million in a cap hit for 2015 for Brees and a $27 million number in 2016 and while he has been a great QB in his career, that is a ton of money to be paying a 36 year old player, no matter who he is. Trading Graham gives the team some breathing room, but it also could signal what the team intends to do going forward.
Peter King on the MMQB wrote about the deal and described a moment between GMs John Schneider and Mickey Loomis that set up the Graham deal and could make sense of the trade rumors. According to Peter King, Schneider asked Loomis this weekend if "Anything off limits?". Schneider was referring to players on the roster, to which he replied: "No." That was the initial set up for the graham deal and while that doesn't mean Brees will be traded, the team has a terrible cap situation and a family dispute regarding the ownership of the team.
The Saints traded Graham after signing him to a four-year, $40 million last year and now he is with the Seahawks, making them a Super Bowl contender again. Brees has been as good as anyone since coming to the Saints, but he has a major deal and with the team going 7-9 last season, more changes could be coming. Last year Brees had nearly 5000 yards and threw for 33 touchdowns and he also completed nearly 70 percent of his passes.
Over the last two season Brees has been over 68 percent in completing his passes and he has 72 passing TDs in that time. The Buccaneers appear ready to take Winston and while this is mostly speculation, there is a chance the team could look at trading out of the number one spot if they got a strong quarterback in return. But for any Bucs fans out there, this trade is likely not going down.
Check here for more from the Sun Times about the potential deal that likely will not go down.