SmashMouth

It's hard to believe it was five years ago.

Drew Brees, already a sports superhero in New Orleans, lifting himself to legendary status with a Super Bowl XLIV victory over the Indianapolis Colts.

At that point, it didn't necessarily feel as though we were witnessing the climax of Brees' career. He had just turned 31, which is oftentimes the heart of a quarterback's prime. He was coming off the best year of his career, a season in which he was the league's highest-rated qualified passer. He also tied an NFL record with a completion percentage of 70.6 while helping New Orleans flirt with a perfect record.



But in the half-decade since Brees carried the Saints to their first championship, the 2001 second-round pick out of Purdue has yet to get back to a Super Bowl, or even a conference title game. He and the Saints have won just two postseason games in five years and are coming off their second losing campaign in a three-year span.

Sure, he's been a Pro Bowler in all five post-Super Bowl seasons, but those come with rubber stamps at this point. And he reset that completion percentage record and passed for more yards than any quarterback in history while earning the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award in 2011. But passing records—particularly those related to volume-based yardage statistics—are quite hollow in an era hijacked by the deep ball.

Entering 2015, Brees still hasn't been able to match or better his yards-per-attempt average or interception total from that magical 2009 season.

read much more including some very interesting stats

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