Could Drew Brees Be Overrated?

After coming off one the seasons for any quarterback in NFL history, a question arises in my mind. How good is Drew Brees, really? After looking through his stats and the stats of his receivers, I think he might be just a little overrated

There is absolutely no arguing with his phenominal numbers. He shattered Dan Marino’s 26-year-old passing mark of 5,085 yards. Up untill this season the 5,000 passing mark was the gold standard for quarterbacks in this league, but still, how good is he?

Brees’ go-to reciever was tight end Jimmy Graham. Graham pulled in 99 catches for 1,310 yards and 11 TDs. Darren Sproles and Marques Colston were his second and third favorite targets with 86 and 80 catches, respectively, for 710 and 1,143 yards each.

Not to take away anything from Brees and his incredible season, but how good is a quarterback who’s favorite two targets are his two check-down targets? Following Colston, the next most targeted receiver was Lance Moore with 52 catches — that’s a big fall off.

Yes, Brees did take chances down field alot, but 2 0f his top 3 recievers were people who would sit 5-7 yards away until Brees would get under duress and then throw them the ball in space, while they would create plays with their legs. Sproles electrifying quickness and Graham’s intimidating combination of size and speed got Brees out of many sticky situations and into the record books.

The argument could be brought up that without the little sparkplug that is Darren Sproles this unbelievable season might not have been nearly as jaw-dropping as it was. It is safe to say that Darren Sproles was easily the biggest free agent acquisition for just about any team in recent memory. The extra dimension he brought to this Saints offense made them even scarier than the ’09 Saints, something I did not think was possible.

Not to mention the huge impact the Jimmy Graham brought to the team in the red-zone. He seemed to always be open. Even when he was covered his catches seemed as effortless as if he wasn’t. He was a match up nightmare as quick as a receiver in the body of a lineman, too fast to be covered by linebackers and too big to be covered by safeties. If it wasn’t for the “Gronk” on the Pats, Graham would have had the best season by tight end.

So with all that being said a question arises in my mind would Brees’ season been as good without these two versitile dynamic players?

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