“It's disappointing.”
That's what Zach Strief, the Voice of the Saints and a former Saints offensive lineman kept coming back to while reflecting on New Orleans' 30-20 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “There's such a finality, and it's a brutal finality in the National Football League. It's really unlike any other sport. You just don't have any time to prepare for it.
“The reality is for the last four years, Saints fans, Saints players, staff, front office have walked away miserable at the end of the year,” Strief went on. “Not only has it ended in the playoffs four straight years, this discussion of a window and the Saints opportunity to be a Super Bowl contender has been closing and getting narrow. So I think it's not just the end of a season. I think the fear, and what makes this so different, is that it could also be the end of the Drew Brees era, which is a much, quite honestly, harder thing to deal with.”
Brees has been the Saints quarterback for the past 15 years, leading New Orleans to seven NFC South titles, three NFC Championship Games, and one Super Bowl win. He has set numerous individual records and should be a first ballot Hall-of-Famer. There was a report before the game that Brees, 43, would retire after this season. He didn't announce any decision in his postgame comments, saying he had to “think about a lot of things,” but many expect him to call it quits.
“It's going to be a really difficult offseason to watch,” Strief said. “The Saints have been playing this game with the [salary] cap for awhile, knowing they had this opportunity with Drew at quarterback and also understanding that, at some point, there would be some heartburn at the end of it.
“I think the truth is they had a plan for how to handle that,” Strief continued. “The problem was when COVID shows up, all those plans went out the window because there was no contingency for the cap going the wrong direction by tens of millions of dollars.”
While the final salary cap figure is yet to be determined, Over the Cap projects it to be $176 million, which would put the Saints roughly $99 million over. That will necessitate a lot of tough decisions.
But the toughest for many would be seeing Brees retire, especially after another disappointing playoff loss.
“It's sad, man,” Strief said. “I had a totally different reaction after that game [last night] than I think I've ever had. For four years, we've talked about this window and the finality of Drew's career; and we have become so spoiled. I don't think people realize what a difference it's going to be to not have him as quarterback.”
