It's all beginning to feel real.

There have been rumblings of Drew Brees calling it a career after the 2020 season and a reported renegotiation of his deal with the Saints is the first major step.

According to Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap, Brees is making his (probable) departure a little easier on the Saints in the meantime.

This renegotiation will reportedly drop Brees' base salary in 2021 to the league minimum.

New Orleans renegotiated Brees' contract to drop his base salary in 2021 to the minimum, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported Friday, per an informed source. The club now has the option to keep him on the roster past June 1 while drastically reducing his 2021 cap hit.

This drops what would have been a $36 million-plus cap charge down to around $12 million for the New Orleans Saints. This move frees up around $24 million for the Saints in an offseason that was predicted to be hellish for the black & gold.

What this also signals is that an official retirement announcement may be coming sooner than later for the 41-year-old Saints quarterback.

If this is the case, I'm hoping Saints fans will remember this as his last play Drew made and not what we saw on the field. It's a play he's familiar with as Brees has done solids for the Saints when it came to money and cap space during his entire tenure with New Orleans.

He's been no stranger to restructuring for the team's benefit, so it's only fitting that he does it one more time, possibly giving the Saints their best chance at winning as we're likely to see the team navigate through life after Brees.

Only time will tell.

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