But Bledsoe wasn't really an equal caliber QB, so while I do agree with your overall sentiment, I do think that replacing Brees with equal or at least close to similar talent would be extremely difficult.

The only part that we may disagree a little on is the "extremely" part. That, again, is where I am just not sure. Is Payton's system that good, or is Drew that good. Probably both, but I am only saying that due to the circumstances I would be willing to find out.

I think that Brees' very high throwing accuracy is one of the things that makes him such a great QB in SP's offense, because a lot of the things SP does depend on pin point accuracy and timing.

But, like you said, I do think that both of them make each other look good - and following up on that, I do think that both would not have had the same level of success during these past years if they hadn't come together.

That being said, both of them could succeed apart from each other, but it would be hard for Brees to find a similar offense to the one the Saints have, which would put him in the best place to succeed, because he needs to be a "pocket passer" in order to be as effective as possible. And I do think that SP could more easily modify his offensive schemes to fit another type of a QB, so he'd probably succeed more easily without Brees as the Saints' QB than vice versa.