Unfortunately, the Minnesota Vikings were not the team to eliminate the New Orleans Saints from the playoffs this season. The Vikings let the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take care of business instead this time around.
However, this year’s playoff loss could have a much larger impact on the Saints than all of the other times they’ve been recently knocked out of the postseason by Minnesota and others.
After falling to the Bucs on Sunday, New Orleans is now expected to need a new starting quarterback for the first time since 2006 as Drew Brees is reportedly set to retire after 20 years in the NFL.
Could the New Orleans Saints attempt to acquire Kirk Cousins from the Minnesota Vikings?
With Brees hanging it up, the Saints now have to figure out who their starting signal-caller will be for the 2021 season. There are a few paths they could take to fill this void, but the lack of salary cap space they are expected to have this year could prevent them from making a move to remain a contender in the NFC.
New Orleans is currently projected to be almost $82 million over the salary cap when the new league year begins in March if Brees retires. This is based on OverTheCap’s estimation that the 2021 salary cap will be set around $181 million.
With the Saints’ lack of spending money, signing a free-agent quarterback this year seems highly unlikely. So that leaves New Orleans with the options of making a trade, drafting a young passer, or turning to someone already on their roster.
Taysom Hill will be the only Saints quarterback left under contract in 2021 if Brees chooses to retire. Hill got a chance to start in a few games this past season, but he didn’t really blow anyone away with his performances.
New Orleans could turn to the 2021 NFL Draft for a new starting quarterback. But their first selection won’t happen until the No. 28 pick and they only have a total of three draft selections this year. So it’s not like they have the ammo to land one of the top passing prospects.
The Saints’ last option would be to make a trade. But due to the extreme salary cap situation they are expected to be dealing with this year, trading for a solid veteran like current Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins seems very unlikely.
Cousins would probably be a great fit for New Orleans as he would allow the offense to continue doing most of the things they could do with Brees under center. But due to their terrible management of the salary cap recently, the Saints would basically have to cut all of their players to free up enough cap space to afford Cousins.
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So to anyone who saw the report this weekend about Brees retiring and thought that Cousins could be his potential replacement in New Orleans, this is something that probably has a less than one percent chance of happening.