Overrated and Underrated
 

July 6, 2006

By Pete Prisco
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer




New Orleans Saints

Overrated: Quarterback Drew Brees had a few good seasons in San Diego, but he's a system passer who lacks a big arm. And he's coming off shoulder surgery. The Saints paid way too much to get him.

Underrated: Defensive end Will Smith is on the verge of becoming a star. He showed a nice burst in his second year in the league and could put up a 15-sack season.



Team-by-team....
http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/9542704





8)

RE: Overrated and Underrated
 

Brees overrated? He may be expecially behind our offensive line. I for one am not sold on this dude as the next savior. Will he look like so many other less mobile QBs who have had great seasons behind superior lines and poor ones behind lesser?

New Saints Cheer in Superdome This Year... Breesus Christ

http://images.google.com/images?q=tb...esusChrist.gif

If the same thing happened to Montana early in his career before all the Superbowls, they would have wrote the same thing. No one can predict the future. Payton and Loomis aren't stupid. He'll do well if the line holds. If not, at least he won't run backwards with athletic ability and add 15 negative yards to the sack. Plus, bringing in Brees brought in A LOT of talent for us when many players didn't want to come here. Once we signed Brees, the pieces fell into place.

If the line doesn't hold, Brees won't have an opportunity to run from trouble. He'll be back in rehab.




A little early to call that one, me thinks.




8)

Its hard to read on Brees. He's always had a terrific run game to take the pressure off him and in his best seasons he had the top TE in football as his main target. However, he has never had a decent recieving corps to work with. Horn and Stallworth arent top of the line in my opinion but are a significant upgrade over an ancient Keenan McCardell and Eric Parker. I think Zach Hilton will surprise alot of people and be great midrange target for Brees. Bush gives him a terrific receiver out the backfield and in the slot. If the run game can keep defenses honest, and like you guys said, if the line can give him time to go through his progressions, Pete Prisco could be eating his words.

I think he will be eating his words....I think prisco just pulled up DB's college scouting report and changed the team name...DB has had that judgement since he was in college, "a system qb", what does that mean exactly and what qualifies that being said about the guy? Joe frekin' Montana could be called a "System QB" and very few people would argue with it, his system was the west coast offense....Tom Brady is a system QB, his system is the Belichek system, Jake Delhomme is a "System QB", his system is the "throw it to Steve" system...I like jake, I just could not resist...and hey you know what all these system QB's have in common???

They all win

He will not be throwing alot of deeppppppp passes in the Payton scheme. It will be up to the WR to break it open after the catch. So yes if he is the system guy he has landed in the right system. He is a another Brady type of guy. Just need the WR and TE to improve there games. Lets see how karney does. I believe he will step up and show the hands and rushing abilitywe have not seen as of yet. Now that he has lost the Haz Fat and is down to about 240 - 250.
But the WR/TE need to respected by the D in order for any of the RB to do well. If they continue to be among the lead leaders in dropped passes the D will stack 8 in the box and we all will suffer.

hold up!!!!!

for like 5 years now i have had to sit here and read about how great ab was gonna be. this is ab's year, but he never panned out. now we bring in a smarter more talented qb and he gets labeled overrated???? ab was overrated!!!! brees is good

horn and stallworth are a upgrade at receive for him, our te is not as good, but 2 years ago people were saying the same thing about sd o line. lt is the best rb in the game, but deuce/bush isnt going to be a far drop off. as for the dline getting to him 2 or 3 draw plays / screen/dump offs to deuce/bush for 10 - 15 and the d line will keep themselves in check.
i'm not saying he will be our savior but he is an upgrade at the qb position

amen jr

amen to that koja

Well put Koja. Brees is definetly an upgrade. Although AB could laser a ball in tight holes every once in a while, his overconfidence in thinking that he could that more often than not got him in alot of trouble sometimes. Brees has the smarts to pick his spots and know when to fire it in and when to look elsewhere.