"New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and coach Sean Payton have both said publicly that they expect Brees' pending free agency to be resolved fairly quickly, and for the star quarterback to remain a part of the team.

On Monday, Saints general manager Mickey Loomis told The Times-Picayune that he similarly feels confident about Brees' future, though he acknowledged that keeping Brees will make it more challenging to decide who else to retain among the rest of their pending free agents.

"There's been lots of times where you've had core players that are unrestricted free agents, that happens, and occasionally you lose some that you don't want to lose," Loomis said. "It's part of the business, and we just have to move on when that happens. I don't like when it happens, and we'll do everything we can not to let that happen.""