The bolded part is routinely ignored around here when it comes to the mob attacking Loomis. IMO, any complaints about his CAP management skills should fall on deaf ears because there were very few complaints when those largest contracts were handed out.
In particular, Brees played out the entirety of his 2012 5yr contract and thwarted attempts of negotiating long term extension in 2016. His contract had a ballooning final 2 years on the CAP and a multi-year extension could have mitigated our current situation. Instead of working out a long term deal, Brees opted to do a 1yr deal which accounted for well over 10% of the cap and essentially repeated doing so until his retirement 5 years later.
Loomis had no other alternative but to continue with his "kick the can" approach if he wanted to continue to fill a competitive roster.
I'll hold him accountable for not firing DA after yr 2 and for giving in to the idea that we should chase a FA QB. He had a chance to pay the bill for the Payton/Brees era and he opted to double down on his error of hiring DA cause Payton endorsed the hire.