The wave of teams restructuring contracts before free agency already has started. After Tom Brady signed an extension to free up cap space for the New England Patriots, seemingly every big-money quarterback is being asked if he would rework his contract.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, whose team is in woeful salary cap shape, told WWL-AM he'd be open to restructuring his contract if it would aid the team.
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"I am always willing to consider anything that will help the team or the cap situation," Brees said in a text to the radio station.
It is not clear if the Saints have approached Brees to discuss his contract, according to The Times-Picayune.
Brees' 2013 cap figure is $17.4 million, the highest on the Saints. However, as ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio pointed out last week, restructuring Brees' contract presents a tricky problem.
Turning his 2013 base salary into guaranteed payments spread over the length of the contract would lower this season's number but increase the quarterback's cap number in subsequent years, which already is more than $25 million in the final two years of the contract.
Brees usually says the right things when it comes to his team, but how he and the Saints handle the aging quarterback's contract in the future will speak volumes.
Follow Kevin Patra on Twitter @kpatra.