For years, we've seen teams award long-tenured head coaches one-year extensions in order to avoid the risks associated with lame-duck seasons. It's a good way to give a vote of confidence to a coach without breaking the bank with a long-term commitment.
That strategy hasn't typically been used with star players, even quarterbacks who sometimes feel like coaches, mainly because the franchise tag has given teams the ability to control certain contracts as they've expired.
But the one-year extension that New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees agreed to on Wednesday is, for all intents and purposes, lame-duck prevention.