Well instead of just making stuff up, let's look at some actual stats:

Quarterback Air Yards - 2013 - NFL Season Statistics

The stat here is "quarterback air yards" which is defined as "the total distance that a football is thrown beyond the line of scrimmage to the point of reception. Air yards is calculated by taking total passing yards and subtracting Yards After the Catch (YAC)."

Drew is obviously near the top every year in total air yards because he throws for a ton of yards, thus resulting in a lot of total air yards. I think the more relevant stat for this debate is "air yards per attempt", which will show how far the QB throws it per attempt, minus the YAC.

The #1 overall QB for this year is just over 5 yards...so your estimate of "10-12 yards" (what you thought was a small number) is actually more than double the league leader. I agree that 10-12 yards seems mediocre at best, but the numbers don't lie. Just over 5 yards LEADS THE LEAGUE. Remember, we are subtracting the YAC, as you even stated that "what the back or receiver does with it after is a different story."

Drew Brees is #9 overall for this year with 4.19. He has finished in the top ten 4 of the last 6 years, and was #2 overall in 2009. I think it's safe to say he does NOT "mostly throw short stuff", which was the comment I had originally refuted from the Seachicken fan, and also what you tried to refute me on to agree with the Seachicken fan, that Brees does in fact throw a lot of short passes. Well, I think I've made it clear that is not the case when you compare Drew relative to the rest of the QBs in the league (there is nothing else to compare it to...no not the weather). So you were right about one thing, we have obviously been watching different QBs over the past 6 years.

Cheers.

Good stuff. Reminds me of when some claimed Drew didn't throw the deep pass well, and stats showed he was #1 in the entire league in deep ball accuracy.