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(Final in a Series- NFC South)

Recent history is not on the side of the New Orleans Saints.

Five of the past 11 Super Bowl champions did not make the playoffs the next season.

Ten defending champions failed to make it to the conference championship game the following year. The last team to repeat was the New England Patriots back in 2003-2004, and some say they employed espionage to do it.

Well, who in the hell doesn't want a shortcut to greatness?

"You can pretend like there's nothing there," Drew Brees told Sports Illustrated of the recent failures of Super Bowl champs. "The numbers don't lie"

As for Mr. Brees, his numbers are God-like.

In the past four years, he has completed more passes for more yardage than any quarterback in the NFL. Only Peyton Manning has more touchdown passes in that span. And if Friday night's performance against San Diego is any indication, Brees has several more years of peak performance ahead of him.

The feeling has always been that the Saints can win the Super Bowl while Brees is healthy and in his prime, and last year Brees assumed his place among the NFL's elite quarterbacks joining Manning and Tom Brady

Brees is an artisan—the Rembrandt, the Monet, the Greenberg of the quarterback position, and not only that, he's made it very cool to be a short guy again. In 2009's march to the Super Bowl, he completed an NFL record 70 percent of his passes.

In the second half against the Colts, he was dominant as he completed 29 of 32 passes, and the Saints came from 10 points back to win the team's first Super Bowl, triggering an immense celebration on Bourbon Street in which ladies of the evening and men of the cloth reportedly danced side-by-side.

Sheer rhapsody it was.

Too bad the Chaplain of Bourbon Street wasn't around to intervene. Poor bastard is retired in Texas. Many souls may have been saved had he been present.

Brees has no shortage of receivers to throw to and the QB himself is an equal opportunity distributor of the football. And why shouldn't he be with pass-catchers like Marcus Colston, Devery Henderson, Robert Meachem, Reggie Bush, and Jeremy Shockey. At press time, it didn't appear that Shockey was playing with a full deck but since when has that ever mattered in New Orleans.

This isn't your grandfather's NFL anymore, and the running game isn't as important as it once was. Nevertheless, the Saints are solid if not spectacular in the backfield. Pierre Thomas, a fan favorite, had over 1,000 yards from scrimmage in 2009. Bush is healthier than he has ever been according to Sean Payton. Saints partisans feel the controversy-plagued running back is primed for a breakout season in 2010.

(read entire article here)
NFC South: New Orleans Saints a Not-So-Sexy Pick To Repeat | Bleacher Report