Saints agreed to terms with QB Drew Brees on a five-year, $100 million contract. Per ESPN's Chris Mortensen, the deal contains $60 million guaranteed and a whopping $40 million in the first season. Brees is now the NFL's highest paid player, surpassing Calvin Johnson, Peyton Manning, and everyone else. It's also a table setter for Aaron Rodgers, who is currently grossly underpaid through 2014. Brees is 32 years old, but still playing as well as any quarterback in football. He broke Dan Marion's thought-unbreakable passing yardage record in 2011, and reset his own league record for single-season completion rate. The contract averts a potential disaster for the Saints that might have resulted from a training camp holdout. Brees is now under the team's control through his age-36 season. He's a shoo-in top-five fantasy quarterback for 2012.

Although there are no tangible signs of progress, unsigned franchise player Drew Brees remains optimistic that a long-term contract will be finalized by Monday's deadline. "I'm an eternal optimist, so I'm still very confident a deal will get done by Monday," said Brees. "I think I've been around this league long enough to understand how this works at times. In a lot of cases, it does go down to the wire, and you need a stopping point in order to bring everyone together and make sure it can get done."

A person familiar with the negotiations tells the Associated Press that the Saints and unsigned franchise player Drew Brees are "more than $10 million apart" in guaranteed money on a long-term contract. The proposed deal is expected to be worth about $100 million over five years. While the sides are close in maximum money, there is a "significant" gap when it comes to establishing Brees' guaranteed worth. Also citing people familiar with talks, the AP reports Brees will not report to training camp on time without a long-term deal in place. Brees believes he played out a contract year last season as an "act of faith" that the Saints would satisfy his long-term demands. The sides have until Monday to strike a deal.

Appearing on SportsCenter, the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Mike Triplett expressed confidence that the Saints will finalize a long-term contract with Drew Brees ahead of Monday's deadline for franchise players to sign such deals. Triplett explained that Brees is only not signed right now because we "haven't reached the critical mass of the deadline yet." Added Triplett, "I think this could go all the way down to that Monday wire. But I really do think they are ultimately gonna come together on a long-term agreement." The sides are separated by no more than $1.25 million in agreed-to annual payouts. Look for a deal to be reached by next Monday morning, if not sooner.

Unsigned franchise player Drew Brees has no plans to report to training camp without a long-term deal in place by Monday's deadline, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen.

According to Profootballtalk.com, "there's a growing belief in some league circles" that unsigned franchise player Drew Brees will play under his one-year tender in 2012.

The Times-Picayune fully expects unsigned franchise player Drew Brees to agree to a new five-year deal with the Saints before next Monday's deadline. Columnist Mike Triplett is thinking logically here -- but not reporting any movement in negotiations. The Saints have already offered Brees the richest contract in league history, somewhere between $19.2 and $20 million per year. That theoretically leaves the ball in Brees' court. But agent Tom Condon is likely pushing for more guaranteed money up front and will use Monday's deadline for leverage.

Profootballtalk's Mike Florio believes unsigned Saints' franchise player Drew Brees will have leverage beyond the July 16 deadline to reach a long-term deal. The popular assumption is that Brees will have no reason not to sign his $16.4 million tender if a deal isn't reached by July 16. However, Florio points out that Brees could insist on more money for 2012, or demand a clause that prevents the Saints from franchising him again next offseason. It's still hard to believe the sides won't reach a deal by next Monday's deadline, but considering how acrimonious talks have been up to this point, anything is possible.

A federal arbitrator has ruled in Drew Brees' favor in his franchise tag grievance. Brees successfully argued that players can be franchise tagged only three total times in their careers. The Saints were arguing players could be tagged three times by any one team. Before this year, Brees was also franchised by the Chargers in 2004. It means Brees would be eligible for a 144 percent raise were he to be tagged for a third time in 2013. That would put his total 2012-13 earnings at $40 million instead of $36 million. The ruling gives Brees a nice bit of added leverage as the sides attempt to wrap up long-term talks before the July 16 deadline.

In an interview with ESPN's Outside the Lines, unsigned franchise player Drew Brees insisted Tuesday that he would "never sit out the season." "I love the game too much. I love my team too much," Brees added by way of explanation. Although Brees would seem to be surrendering leverage to the organization, we can't imagine a scenario where he would seriously consider walking away from $16.4 million to play football. The two sides have until July 16 to reach agreement on a long-term deal that will likely make Brees the highest-paid player in the game.