NFL Rumors: New Orleans Saints Replacing Drew Brees With Paxton Lynch
NFL rumors are swirling around Drew Brees. There are talks that the New Orleans Saints are considering the possibility of letting their longtime franchise quarterback walk away in free agency after next season. According to NFL, management is considering the possibility of acquiring Paxton Lynch, one of the top younger passers coming out of college on Thursday. The draft is already an interesting time, but it will be even more intriguing if the Saints start the process of moving on from Brees.
Before the Los Angeles Rams swung the massive deal to acquire the first overall selection in the NFL Draft taking place this upcoming Thursday, there were said to be other teams in negotiations with the Tennessee Titans. We learned earlier today that the New Orleans Saints were said to be one of those teams. Apparently, they were interested in drafting either Jared Goff or Carson Wentz. That’s a clear sign that they were looking ahead at their quarterback situation.
Right now, the New Orleans Saints are sitting at the 12th overall selection, but that could change before the commissioner gets to the podium to announce the first player taken in the NFL Draft. The San Francisco 49ers are sitting at the seventh overall selection. They still have issues with Colin Kaepernick. At the eighth overall selection are the Cleveland Browns. They signed Robert Griffin III but are not opposed to adding another quarterback into the mix.The reason why the New Orleans Saints are looking at a quarterback despite having one of the best on the roster is because they simply cannot come to a new contract agreement with Drew Brees. The $30 million cap figure simply needs to be reduced. Otherwise, the Saints cannot field a competitive roster. Brees is publicly saying that he is confident that a deal can be reached, but he’s also not opposed to playing out the final year and seeing what happens afterwards.
Drew Brees is 37-years-old right now. He’s still a good quarterback in the NFL. That’s not the reason why the New Orleans Saints want to move on from him. Generally, it’s not a smart move to pay big money to a quarterback when your team doesn’t have much of a chance of making it to the Super Bowl.Drafting someone like Paxton Lynch makes more sense for the New Orleans Saints. He’s going to need a couple of years to adapt to the NFL. Management needs a couple of years to build the roster as well. The timing is much more in sync than simply hoping that Drew Brees can will the entire team to the playoffs with a roster that is filled with bandages. Executives don’t like to use the term, but it’s rebuilding time.
It will be interesting to see how Drew Brees treats Paxton Lynch. The veteran has been in this situation before. The San Diego Chargers drafted Philip Rivers when he was their starting quarterback. Now that he is much older, the situations are much different. Brees might be more inclined to pass on his knowledge to Lynch. Scouts are saying that the Memphis Tigers star definitely needs someone seasoning and could use some strong mentoring.Quarterbacks don’t last forever in the NFL. Eventually, you’re going to start needing to find someone else to take over if you want your franchise to continue to head in the right direction. The New Orleans Saints started going in the wrong direction lately. They’re hoping that someone like Paxton Lynch can turn the ship around. That will be much easier if Drew Brees decides to be a willing participant.
[Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images]