It seems a shadow of unease is starting to fall over the Big Easy. As the NFL’s legal tampering period opens Monday, for some strange reason Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints have failed to finalize a deal to keep the future Hall of Famer in Louisiana. Since the end of the 2017 season, both sides have made it seem like a no-brainer.

Brees wants to continue as the leader of the new-age Saints, and Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton want him leading the way. But the much-ballyhooed same-pagedness between the two sides hasn’t evolved into a contract agreement just yet, and it appears other teams are in fact going to be able to woo Brees after all. That could include one destination that would absolutely rip the hearts out of Saints fans: Minnesota.

The Saints were eliminated from the playoffs in Minnesota on the infamous whiffed tackle by Marcus Williams that allowed Stefon Diggs to take a last-ditch effort to the house. The fact there’s even a remote possibility Brees is the next player to throw a regular-season pass to Diggs is unfathomable, but it could happen.

If Brees were ever to leave New Orleans, the common thought is he’d only do it to go to a franchise with as good a shot at the Super Bowl as the Saints have. The Vikings fit that bill. Minnesota has three capable quarterbacks, but they are all about to hit free agency and are expected to sign elsewhere. And it’s a far stretch to compare Case Keenum, Sam Bradford or Teddy Bridgewater to what a 70,000-yard passing career can bring to the table.

Meanwhile, Brees has a contract that voids on the first day of the new league year. That, by itself, isn’t much of an issue if the two sides intended to strike a deal at some point. The killer is that there are three unamortized years of signing bonus allocation which will all hit the 2018 cap if there’s no agreement made between the two sides prior.

Instead of having a $6 million hit on the 2018 books for his $30 million bonus from a few years ago, the Saints would have an $18 million hit.

That can’t be walked back. Once that happens, it’s there, regardless of what happens the rest of the day, week or free agency period. That’s the impetus for the two sides to make a deal.

Now, after thinking Brees was off limits during the legal tampering period that starts Monday and lasts until the league year officially begins March 14 at 4 p.m. ET, it appears teams will be able to reach out to him and tell him how much more they’d be willing to pay him than New Orleans.

Money has never been thought to be a factor in negotiations, but nothing has happened yet, which would rightly lead any observer to wonder if there is a financial disagreement going on between the two sides.

The Vikings are the only other championship-caliber team around the league in need of a quarterback. The rest are either good to go or turning to recently drafted young guns, like Kansas City with Patrick Mahomes, or Houston with Deshaun Watson.

So could Brees end up north, plying his trade in a wintry mix? The Vikings’ roster is appealing, but so is the Saints’. New Orleans is also home, as Brees is now woven into the fabric of the community.

Still, something doesn’t feel right about the fact there is even an outside chance he leaves. Until that’s corrected with a new deal, fans should at least keep themselves prepared for something this catastrophic.