Count me among those that think the Chargers would have gotten rid of Brees whether he injured his shoulder or not. The difference with the injury may have been just that they would have franchised him first and traded him if he were 100% healthy. The NFL would have ruled probably that his franchise tender was 100% guaranteed...but if he were healthy that wouldn't have mattered because they could trade him easily. As things stand trading him would have been difficult with the injury question and with his salary being guaranteed teams would know that keeping him for the franchise tender level would not be an option. He could not be renegotiated to a long term deal until July.
But the shoulder injury is not the thing standing in the way of Drew Brees remaining a Charger for life. It is just a scapegoat. What stands in the way of Brees being a Charger for life is that the team did not make the playoffs this year even though they feel they should have. What stands in the way is that nearly every time LaDainian Tomlinson and the ground game got held in relative check, Drew Brees transformed into something that looked a lot more like the old Brees than the new Brees. The Chargers have no excuse for losing to the Dolphins, and Drew Brees was very AVERAGE in that game after we shut down Tomlinson. He had a garbage touchdown pad his stats in the end that I didn't even get to watch because the game was so sealed I left the bar with like 3 minutes left to go. There also isn't an excuse for finishing the season with like 3 straight losses.
The Chargers did what they should have done, felt him out to see if they could get him under contract at an affordable rate that in itself would present a competitive advantage relative to other teams...and when he didn't play ball, bye bye Brees. I think you could hardly say they were committed to making Brees a Charger when they basically only faxed over ONE offer, and when he rejected it, they stopped negotiations. That's not negotiating, that's putting on a show for the masses.
