New Orleans Saints: Drew Brees, forever underrated

Only a fool would leave New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees off of their Hall of Fame list when he retires, and only the most deluded of fans would deny the claim that he’s been one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks for the majority of his career. However, few seem to realize that we still under-appreciate him, mainly because we fail to understand just how much he’s hid the failings of the Saints as an organization.

I often ask myself, “When we look back at our generation of football players, who will history underrate the most?”

In the past, I used to find myself grappling with the answer to this question, but now it’s become clear to me that New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees will that guy. Even though he has a ring to his name and is a six-time passing yards leader, Brees had never been MVP, he’s been a First-Team All-Pro player just once, and he plays for a franchise that he has literally carried ever since joining them in 2006 as the single greatest free agent coup in NFL history.

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We could go off for days on the numbers. He’s the only QB in NFL history with four 5,000-yard passing seasons, nobody has put up more consecutive games with 20 completions or a touchdown, he is the all-time leader in completion percentage, and he’s the fastest player in NFL history to reach the 40,000, 50,000, and 60,000 yardage totals.

But the best argument for why Brees is under-appreciated and in the realm of the Tom Bradys, Peyton Mannings, Dan Marinos, and Steve Youngs in the annals of NFL history is the fact that he carried one of the thinnest rosters to win the Super Bowl in recent memory.

Yes, what the Saints did in the 2009-2010 season was magical, but let me just quickly run you through their roster.

The Saints defense famously intercepted 26 passes and allowed just 15 TDs through the air, but their high INT rate was the only thing keeping them from being a disaster. They were still 2oth in points per game allowed, 25th in yards per game allowed, 20th in yards per pass attempt, 26th in yards per carry, and 28th in rushing touchdowns.

Their best defenders? Will Smith, a 34-year-old Darren Sharper, Jabari Greer, Jonathan Vilma, Tracy Porter, and Roman Harper. We’ve seen worse, but compare that to other teams that won the Super Bowl in that period, and things don’t look as good. The ’08 Steelers defense was studded with stars, and the 2010 Packers were 2nd in the NFL in points per game allowed and third in yards per attempt allowed.

OK, how about the Saints offense? Glad you asked. We’ll start with the running game, which had always been a relative weak spot for them before Mark Ingram‘s emergence in 2014 as a true feature back. In 2009, the Saints leader in carries was Mike Bell (GAH) with 172, and he averaged under four yards per pop. The Saints managed to average a hefty amount of yards per carry, cobbling together an efficient rushing attack with Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush getting chunks of carries. But they also benefited greatly from the space the passing game created, and only Bush has had success as a No. 1 back in the NFL.

Despite the fact that Brees was sixth in the NFL in passing yards, first with a 70.6% completion percentage, second in passing yards per game, third with 8.5 yards per attempt, and first with a whopping 109.6 QB Rating, the Saints had just one 70-catch receiver in Marques Colston.

Dec 27, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) looks to throw against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the second quarter at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports /

Colston, Devery Henderson, Jeremy Shockey, Robert Meachem, and Bush all had fantastic years on the stat sheet, but we all know that Meachem and Henderson never had success outside of New Orleans. When a bunch of receivers put up jaw-dropping efficiency numbers in an offense that distributes the ball evenly, we have to give most of the credit to the quarterback. Colston and Shockey were Pro Bowl-quality receivers, but the rest of Brees’s weapons weren’t top-notch. That’s rare for a Super Bowl-winning team entirely based on throwing the ball.

We always talk about how Tom Brady can make anything work, but I think this is a slight myth. In comparison to Peyton Manning, he’s done more with less, but his best years have come with Wes Welker hogging targets and 100+ receptions, Rob Gronkowski dominating, Julian Edelman doing what Welker does, Randy Moss blowing up, or a great defense and running game rolling through opponents (2004 comes to mind here).

This isn’t to take away from Brady, who is the best quarterback of all-time at this point. However, I want to highlight Brees’s ability to succeed despite changing parts around him. This past season, the Saints somehow won seven games despite having the NFL’s worst defense, an unqualified defensive coordinator, turmoil surrounding the future of their head coach mid-season, and a new group of pass-catchers.

Willie Snead, a previous unknown, found immediate success, Brandin Cooks blew up in his second season, Ben Watson emerged from the ashes to put up top TE numbers, Brandon Coleman used his raw tools well when on the field, Colston still managed to play well despite his age, and Brees led the league with 4,870 passing yards despite losing his top receiver in Jimmy Graham.

And nobody gave a damn.

That’s the craziest thing about Brees. After 2014, he was supposedly “declining” and no longer “elite”, and after proving everyone wrong last season, few people want to talk about him.

The year-to-year consistency and numbers are mind-blowing, but so is the fact that he’s managed to carry a Saints franchise that has made repeated salary cap mistakes, failed to build a real defense in recent years, and has mostly given Brees makeshift receivers to work with. But they’ve found success and have lived off of the past success, because their franchise’s savior simply elevates everyone that highly.

Nov 8, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) and head coach Sean Payton celebrate after a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans during the first quarter of a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /

If you want to talk to me about a player who can make any situation work or defines an entire city and team, then that discussion begins and ends with Brees. The more human side of the argument is obvious, but it almost detracts from the football side of it, leading us to forget that Brees’s explosive offenses haven’t been filled with elite talent around him. Sure, Colston and Graham have been great players, but most offenses have more. I mean, look at Brees’s epic 2013 in the Saints 11-5 season as an example of this, because his third and fourth best options were running backs.

Think about it. Just this past year, the Saints traded the two players who led the team in receptions and replaced them with young, unknown former undrafted free agents in Snead and Coleman. Sure, Cooks’s return to health and big second season, as well as Watson’s epic year, were the real keys, but that just goes to show you how confident New Orleans is in their QB.

It’s another reason why we should expect to see them focus their efforts entirely on the defensive side of the ball this season, and not just because they were dead last on defense last season; Brees gives them the luxury of largely ignoring the offense, since things are almost always going well. Even though the Saints won just seven games last season, they did so despite being 32nd in points per game, 31st in yards per game allowed, 32nd in yards per carry allowed, 32nd in yards per attempt allowed, 24th in rushing yards on offense, and 27th in yards per carry.

Across the board, the Saints were awful, except for in one category: passing stats. They were first in total passing yards and fourth in passing yards per attempt.

Dec 13, 2015; Tampa, FL, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) works out prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

Ladies and gentleman, that is the power of Drew Brees, and it’s a phenomenon that we take for granted year after year, since we are so vexed by Brady, Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and now Cam Newton and Russell Wilson.

I love all those QBs, particularly RW3, but Brees is starting to become the guy I praise more than anyone else. Why? Because we never bat an eye when he leads the league in passing yards, qualifying it as “the volume of the offense”. Yeah, that’s true, but the entire team ticks because he throws the ball so often.

Without him constantly spreading the ball around, dialing up passes, and almost never making mistakes (again, he has the highest completion percentage in NFL history, in addition to having the most yards per game in NFL history, a stat that is just mind-blowing), the Saints wouldn’t have their identity nor their success.

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Because even though it’s been two years since they were a top playoff team, they aren’t a laughingstock either, and a few big upgrades on defense could get them back into the postseason.

With Brees at the helm, all you need is some form of competency, and you can even get a Super Bowl out of it. After all, the Saints followed this formula before in 2009, though all they can hope for in 2016 is a trip back to the playoffs.

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