New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees can't play forever.
Yes, he's still a very effective player, to which his 4,952 passing yards, 33 touchdowns and 97.0 quarterback rating last season can attest.
Yes, he's still under contract for two more seasons for salary cap hits of $26.4 million and $27.4 million - it would cost the Saints $33.55 million in 2015 and $7.5 million in 2016 to part ways with him before the deal runs its course.
Yes, Brees said recently that he'd like to retire as a member of the New Orleans franchise, according to Nick Underhill of The New Orleans Advocate.
At age 36, though, Brees is much closer to the end of his NFL career than the beginning, and New Orleans GM Mickey Loomis and head coach Sean Payton would do well to begin planning for a future without their long-time, Super Bowl-winning franchise quarterback.
According to a report from Jason Cole of Bleacher Report, Loomis and Payton are expected to add a signal-caller in the looming 2015 NFL Draft with the assumption that that player will someday take over for Brees.
Per Cole, the Saints - and Payton in particular - have their sights set on former Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty.
"I would say that the odds are very high," Cole said of the possibility of the Saints taking Brees' eventual successor in the 2015 NFL Draft.
"In talking to Sean Payton at the NFL owners meetings he expressed a great interest in Bryce Petty from Baylor University. He planned to go work him out on his own and to check out Petty. Now, that doesn't all of a sudden mean that Petty's going to be taking over in the next year or two. We're talking about a guy who is going to be a fourth, fifth, maybe a sixth-round draft pick, but there is a great debate amongst a lot of people in the NFL, a lot of executives and a lot of personnel people about who is the third-best quarterback in this draft after you get past Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston."
The Saints have been linked to Mariota, the former Oregon signal-caller and Heisman Trophy-winner, in previous reports, but barring a major trade up from 13th to one of the draft's first few selections it seems highly unlikely that New Orleans could get its hands on the former Duck.
The more likely outcome is that the Saints brass wind up targeting a player in the second tier of incoming quarterbacks such as Petty, UCLA's Brett Hundley or Colorado State's Garrett Grayson.
If Cole's report is accurate, Petty seems to have the inside track thus far in the pre-draft process.
According to NFL.com's Lance Zierlein's draft profile of Petty, his senior season was a disappointment to many - he threw for 3,855 yards and 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions - but he's considered a high-upside prospect due to his size, leadership and intangibles.
"He needs a year or two of practice time and camp work to learn how to get through his progressions, but has the intelligence to do that," writes Zierlein. "Petty flashed plenty of arm strength at the NFL Scouting Combine and as the draft draws closer, teams might very well begin to conceptualize Petty fitting into their offense as a potential starter of the future."
The fact that Petty likely needs a couple of seasons of clipboard holding seems like a knock at first, but considering the fact that Brees is nearly assured to continue on as a member of the franchise for at least another year or two, it may mean a near-perfect marriage between the two sides.
Brees remains for the next two seasons and is afforded the opportunity to go out on his own terms, vying for one last run at the Lombardi Trophy, and Petty is given the chance to learn at the feet of one of the modern NFL era's greatest offensive minds, Payton, and quarterbacks, Brees, and will then presumably take the reins of the Saints offense once Brees rides off into the sunset.
This scenario assumes many things, not the least of which is that the Saints can actually get their hands on Petty and Brees is willing to walk away without a fuss after 2016, but whatever the outcome in late April, it seems all but certain that New Orleans will head home to Louisiana with a new quarterback in tow.
