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In a recent appearance on PFT Live, Saints quarterback Drew Brees reiterated his position that talks on a new contract will end when the season begins. The season begins, if you haven’t heard, in six days.

So the clock is ticking, and Brees continues to hold all the cards. Even though the Saints have found a way to build a roster despite Brees having a $30 million cap number in 2016, the veteran quarterback likely will see the market set his value if a new contract isn’t finalized, given that use of the franchise tag would result, by rule, in a one-year cash and cap charge of $43.2 million.

Drew Brees (AP)

Brees consistently has said he doesn’t want to leave New Orleans. And the Saints surely want to keep him. But his leverage necessarily points to a better deal than the Saints have put on the table to date, and the question becomes as the season prepares to commence whether the Saints will sweeten the offer in order to get Brees under contract beyond 2016.

From the player’s perspective, last week’s knee injury to Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater underscores the importance of shifting the injury risk to the team. Although Brees has made plenty of money and will make $20 million more this year, his future earning potential would be dramatically limited if he’s hurt during practice or a game.

On the other hand, if the Saints don’t put an offer on the table that Brees regards as worthy of accepting, and if Brees emerges from the season unscathed and still performing at a high level, he’ll be able to request even more than whatever he currently wants.

The talks have been professional to date, with the Saints not, for example, leaking to the media that Brees wants to be the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL — like the Giants did a year ago when Eli Manning had the leverage to make more than the $22 million new-money average that represented the top of the market at the time. The Andrew Luck deal has nudged the current new-money maximum to $24.594 million, and Brees is in position to get more than that now, possibly a lot more than that later.

Does Brees deserve more than Luck? Is Brees more accomplished than Luck? Will Brees perform better than Luck in 2016 and beyond?

However those inherently subjective questions would be resolved (and some would easily resolve them by saying, yes, yes, and yes), none of it matters. What matters is leverage. For now, the player’s primary leverage comes from his ability to force his way to the open market, and possibly to a team like the Jets, in 2017. By March, the leverage will be whatever over-the-top offer a team would make for the ability to secure the services and marketability of Drew Brees for one, two, three, or more years on the back end of his career.

Broncos outside linebacker Von Miller insists that he will not play this season for the $14 million franchise tag, calling the tag itself a problem for players that he can help fix.

“No, I’m not gonna play on the franchise tag. It just doesn’t make sense in any way,” Miller said on ESPN.

Miller claims that his issue isn’t about the money. His issue is that the franchise tag is inherently unfair to NFL players because it restricts their ability to find out their true market value.

“I’ve never really played for money,” Miller said. “It’s bigger than that for me. It’s a league-wide problem that I feel like I’m in a situation to help out with.”

The question then becomes, What if Miller and the Broncos can’t work out a deal by Friday, which is the deadline for franchise players to sign a long-term contract? If that deadline passes, and Miller and the Broncos still haven’t agreed to a deal, there aren’t a lot of good options left.

One option would be for Miller to sign the franchise tag, but he says he won’t do that. Another option would be for the Broncos to agree to pay Miller more than the $14 million franchise tag number on a one-year deal this season, but that seems unlikely: Teams believe they negotiated for the right to use the franchise tag, and they don’t want to give that up. And the final option would be for Miller to refuse to play, on the idea that he could make more as a free agent next year.

Rams running back Todd Gurley is excited about being featured in Jeff Fisher’s run-first offense, just don’t expect to find him hanging ten at any of LA’s beaches.

The second-year back sat down with Yahoo to talk about the move to the west coast and what it’s been like from a football and lifestyle perspective. While Gurley has enjoyed his first few months on the west coast, appearing in commercials and visiting the popular tourist attractions, he has yet to embrace his adventurous side, citing that he isn’t too keen on the idea of surfing.

Gurley exploded onto the NFL scene as a rookie in 2015, rushing for over 1,000 yards and amassing 10 touchdowns. Despite his success, the Rams stumbled to a 7-9 season and haven’t reached the playoffs since 2004.

Nevertheless, a Rams re-birth may come in the form of a relocation to sunny Los Angeles. Following the 1994 season, the Raiders and Rams bolted for Oakland and St. Louis respectively and football has finally returned to the country’s second-most-populous city.