New Orleans Saints: Keeping both Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater should be an option

The New Orleans Saints have a few extremely tough decisions to be made in the next couple of years in regard to who spearheads their team into battle.

It’s the bye week. That means, as a New Orleans Saints blog, we must look ahead to the future. Yes, the immediate future should be fine, and it’s pretty difficult to assume the playoff picture from the first eight weeks.

We’re talking years into the future.

What happens next year? What happens in five years? The crux of these two questions is about the quarterback position and what will happen to the combination of Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater.

The reality is that it’d be tough for keep them both. The Saints will certainly want to pay both, but they may not be able to. Brees and Bridgewater combine to take up just under $26 million in cap number.

As a roster, according to overthecap.com, the Saints have just over $4.5 million in space. Vonn Bell, Eli Apple, and A.J. Klein are just a few of the players that may see an increase in their contract value as well so that could limit the cap even further.

Let’s assume the two quarterbacks will be forced to stay put. Well, the simple solution is asking both to potentially split the $26 million that they’ll be freeing up. On the open market, both are worth significantly more which could be a problem.

This turns into a huge problem for the Saints and Bridgewater. They’ll have to pay him almost all over the $26 million to absolutely retain his services without any question. However, Brees could arguably still be the better quarterback for the next two seasons.

To go along those lines, we really don’t know how good Bridgewater is without a stellar offensive line. He didn’t see too much pressure with Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk protecting him on the edge. It seems ludicrous to give him over $25 million.

Another option could be to allow Apple to walk and then drafting a player with their first-round pick to replace him. They could then either re-sign Bridgewater or allow Brees another year before aiming for a franchise quarterback in the draft.

Splitting the pot is obviously ideal, but it’s not clear if both quarterbacks would find that a viable option. At the end of the day, this upcoming season will be interesting when it comes to the value of both on the open market.