Saints news: After Drew Brees' retirement, New Orleans makes first move

Not long after Drew Brees announced his retirement, the Saints are already making some big moves as they usher in a new era.

Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints made headlines on Sunday as the 13-time Pro Bowl QB called time on his storied career in the NFL. This is an eventuality that the Saints have been preparing for, and they have now made their first move in the wake of Brees' retirement.

According to NFL insider Adam Schefter of ESPN, New Orleans have decided to restructure the deal of quarterback Taysom Hill to free up a significant amount of cap room for the coming season:

Saints are restructuring QB Taysom Hill’s contract to create cap room. Details are great: it’s a 4-year, $140 million contract extension – but all years are voidable and it’s a mechanism to free up cap space this year, per source. It saves Saints over $7.5M against cap this year.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 14, 2021

$7.5 million is a lot of money, and while it probably won't be enough to bring in a like-for-like replacement for the great Drew Brees, it will still provide the Saints with more maneuverability in terms of their cap space during the offseason.

It is important to note, however, that all the years in Hill's new deal are voidable. This might actually mean that Hill never ends up getting a significant amount of the money involved in the contract. Once you take this into consideration, it's actually quite an impressive move by the Saints front office as they've practically just spread out Hill's cap hit for 2021 over the next four years.

It's not as if Hill is going to be left empty-handed in this restructured deal, though:

Taysom Hill’s contract numbers this year include a $9.686 million signing bonus, a $1.439 million guaranteed roster bonus and a $1.034 million guaranteed base salary, plus incentives, per source. https://t.co/Ooy7akgPlv

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 14, 2021

Hill appears to be in line to take over the starting gig now that Brees is out of the picture. This recent development seems to indicate that New Orleans is willing to at least give him a chance. Then again, Hill will also need to contend with Jameis Winston, who himself is expected to pen a new deal with the Saints.