Puddinhead

From Len Pass-the-gravy\'s piece after visiting the Saints last week:

\"Although an injury kept Aaron Brooks out of practice on Thursday and the Friday night game, we may have to re-think our opinion on the Saints quarterback. Our perception has been, for the last several seasons, that Brooks made plays and put up pretty good numbers, but never made plays to win games. But in speaking with New Orleans officials, and looking over some documentation, Brooks has engineered 11 game-winning fourth-quarter drives in his three seasons as the starter. There aren\'t many coaches in the league who would pass on a guy who has averaged nearly four fourth-quarter comebacks per season, right? And at least, when the ball is in the air, Brooks takes good care of it. Last season, he had three times as many touchdown passes as interceptions (24-8), and his three-season mark in that key area is an excellent plus-35. Where he has problems is protecting the ball in the pocket. Brooks fumbled 13 times last season, in part because he doesn\'t protect the ball well enough, in part because he holds onto the thing too long. Brooks definitely needs to get rid of the ball, to make better and faster decisions, and to be more aware of ball security. He also needs to develop more consistency in general. Brooks can look great one week, mediocre the next, and has to avoid such disparity. He is a bit thin-skinned and doesn\'t handle criticism very well and, in fact, the coaches sometimes have to psychologically play a little good cop-bad cop with him. He\'s also not a guy who seems to inspire confidence in teammates and who is a tad shy on leadership skills. But the people here who count feel he is more than good enough to be a playoff quarterback. Is he good enough to take the Saints to a Super Bowl someday? First he\'s got to shepherd them back to postseason play and then we\'ll find out.\"

Seems like a fairly even-handed analysis...something you\'ll rarely see on a message board.