For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

Pro Football Focus ‏@PFF · 2h2 hours ago
Top-5 QBs in deep passing accuracy (20+ yards):

1. Brees 52.1%.
2. Wilson 50.9%.
3. Roethlisberger 49.3%.
4. Newton 47.8%.
5. Palmer 47.6%

https://twitter.com/PFF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

So 20 yards is considered a deep pass?

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

(20+ yards):

I believe the + sign between 20 & yards answers your question

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

I consider a deep pass more than simply 20+ yards. To me thats an intermediate range.

I'd say a deep pass is one that travels more than 40 yards.

Do you really consider a 20 to 30 yard pass a deep pass?

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

Why did you put the word fans in quotations? Does it make someone less of a fan for questioning his arm strength? No offense but that's completely devoid of any kind of logic.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

Brees does not have a lot of arm stregnth and the fact he has connected on 20 plus yards can be more attributed to accuracy. Accuracy has been Brees calling card his entire Career. Its not a knock on him, he still gets it done. One can argue that accuracy is more important than arm strenght. After all it doesnt matter if you can throw 200 yards if you cannot hit the broad side of a fat chicks ass. The accuracy thing is a plus. As a QB ages he will lose arm stregnth while his accuracy can be on point longer.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

My Mom used to tell me only a hit hog hollered.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

WhoDat, I'm sorry, but this is just pointless. When people think about arm strength and deep passes, they are only taking into account balls that are actually deep passes. Not 20 yarders.

Show me a stat of 35 plus yard passes, and let's see where he ranks. And by the way, no one was "questioning" his arm strength in the beginning of the year... It was a statement of fact. He couldn't EVEN throw it 20 yards. He got healthier, and got back to being decent but he's never been a strong armed QB. What was alarming, was that he didn't even have zip within the range of throws we were used to him making.

That was something anyone could see. If you want to question people's fandom because they point out the obvious and don't just kiss a**, then you have a problem. Not us.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

The link I posted was not limited to 20 yards; it was for 20 yards AND LONGER! I did a cursory search and found that Brees' longest pass of the year was 80 yards.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

as a mid range passer 20 to 40 you are hard pressed to find a better QB. But as you get to 40 and beyond Drew does not have the arm to lead a streaking WR unless he just goes with play and goes with a quick release. stand and wait for a WR to come open or a route to develop you no the odds are good the WR will be slowing up to make the catch.

I will go with a 20 to 30 yard marksman all day long.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

Over 40+ yards:
Carson Palmer, Eli Manning & big Ben have 15
In 2nd place with 13 is Drew Brees.

NFL Stats: by Player Category

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

I think that also includes YAC.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

Why is everyone jumping the OPs ass? He's right. Drew Brees and the whole "noodle arm" thing is bs. He's bringing up stats that justify his conclusion. Now I know Brees doesn't have a "cannon" but his arm strength is fine. Better than a lot of others around here who just ***** and act like they know what's best for the entire franchise.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

He couldn't throw the ball 20 yards are you serious? & some of you were saying he couldn't throw before he got hurt

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

For the 'fans' questioning the 'fans'...

There were two types of 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength.

Those that questioned it before he hurt his shoulder this year, and yes, they were wrong. He has always had adequate arm strength. Not a strong arm but not a weak one either.

Then there were those that noticed he couldn't get any zip on the ball at all after he hurt his shoulder this year. They were right. That lasted 3 or 4 weeks and it was pretty obvious he'd lost a lot of zip on the ball.

He slowly regained his arm strength and now looks to be the same old Drew.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

Don't need great strength but his lack of it...many times I've seen him float deep, receiver having to slow or come back for it. It's a trade off though. He's probably one of the best balances of power and accuracy, lean more towards accuracy which is actually what you want. Normally when they have too much strength accuracy suffers. Billy Joe Tolliver had one of the strongest arms I've seen along with Testerverde. Fun to watch when they connect but that was about the extent of it, they struggled with the finesse of passing which is more important.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

There were a lot of people questioning Brees' value at the start of the season. Not just his arm but his total game and even his dedication to the team. He's accused of being a stat whore who only cares about breaking records. Team be damned! What that was really all about is his contract. They think he should play for way under his market value so we can keep over paying mediocre talent and F/A pipe dreams.

Because that's how Super Bowls are won.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

Yes..... I know. I'm saying TAKE OUT the dinky 20 yarders from that stat and actually rate actual DEEP passes, and you would have a far different stat. Why? Because most of what he throws "downfield" is no longer than 20 to maybe 25 yards. So given that the stat you looked up is including those, Brees' stats are mostly going to be driven by those shorter, so-called "deep" passes. Know what I'm saying?

And you and I both know Drew never threw a pass 80 yards. That was 20 yard pass that Spiller ran the last 60. That's not a deep pass. Therein lies another problem with using these kind of stats... If it's counting distance of the play and not the actual distance the ball was thrown, then it is an invalid and useless statistic.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

When he got hurt in the Tampa game? Yes, he couldn't throw it 20 yards, and missed the next game because of it. Go back and watch and think about what you're saying before trying to call me out.

I never said he couldn't throw the ball 20 yards at ANY POINT in his career. I clearly stated "in the beginning of the year".

Some of you are too freaking attached to Drew, to the point that you don't want to hear any opinion that isn't slobbering all over his greatness, and take facts that are meant only as just exactly that... FACTS... and turn it into "you guys hating on Drew should be ashamed of yourselves". There are very, VERY few people who actually think Drew sucks. It's not a debate of whether he's a good QB. If you're talking about arm strength alone, Drew has always relied on timing. Which is fine... But it has nothing to do with this argument. When he got hurt, however, he had no ZIP, he couldn't get the ball downfield AT ALL, and it was obvious. We all knew he was hurt at that point. Nobody said he wasn't.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

Here we go again with this... By "a lot of people" do you mean a couple of random comments? Anybody can get mad after a game and talk about a guy being done, or whatever, but how many people actually questioned his dedication? Almost every comment I read, or have written myself, that has even the slightest bit of negative about his play on the field is prefaced by "I love drew, and he's a warrior, but"... or something along those lines. You're talking about a really rare person who comes out bashing his character.

When you DO have a huge contract like he does there will be extra expectation, as there should be, and Drew knows it. Ask the Baltimore Ravens how awesome their QB's were in their two Superbowl wins. The freaking Bucs won a Superbowl with Brad Johnson of all people. What's my point? It still takes a team to win a championship, no matter how much ridiculous money they want to pay QB's. When you take up that much money, you better earn it. That's how it goes.

Do you feel sorry for him? I don't. I think the money he's made will soften the pressure just a bit. He took the money they gave him. Players aren't worth near the money they make these days, but I get it from the players perspective. They're not going to turn it down. Just know that you will be expected to do things that might not be reasonable. Saying he doesn't have the strongest arm is not an attack. It's common knowledge.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

Yea I dont know who "a lot of people" are. Idiots hang out together so yea if you are around your friends and consider them "a lot of people" then I guess you have a point. Meanwhile in the real world there isnt a person with half a brain that would question his dedication. Brees got the going rate for a QB of his caliber at the time. Its not like he took the organization to the woodshed. Other teams are able to pay their QBs and still field a good team. New England, Seattle, Green bay, etc. Its not Brees fault for trying to get a fair wage for his position. He has even said he would be willing to restructure his contract if it would help the team.
Yes, he is getting older, but I think extending his career a year or two by getting him some protection and a good receiver puts us in a better position to win now and in the future as opposed to starting some rookie and rebuilding.

People seem to forget how it was before Payton and Brees got here. People like them dont just hang around trees like crabapples.

Re: For the 'fans' that questioned Brees' arm strength
 

You're right that it isn't his fault for taking what they were willing to give him. It's the whole game that free agency has become that makes me sick. I'm a capitalist, so I can appreciate the idea of having the opportunity to advance and make more money. But this is beyond that. People are getting paid more for what others are doing.

You have a guy like Brees who was and for the most part still is an elite player at his position. But then you have guys who are making money off of his success because of how players like Brees, Brady, Peyton Manning and Rodgers are driving the market value. Guys like average Joe Flacco and Andy -can't win a playoff game- Dalton get enormous deals because there aren't enough good QB's to go around, so they have to pay up, and that means giving deals that are very similar to those of the Elite QB's.

But that's another story... It takes a great organization to keep retooling with limited money. It's only been in the last 5-7 years that contracts have truly taken off. We signed Drew to a 6 year, 60 million dollar contract just ten years ago, and we thought that was a lot of money. He was making HALF of what he makes now. So It's hard to say that other teams have done well paying these enormous deals, when it's all happened pretty recently.

The Patriots, yes. They coach their team better than anyone else right now. It can be done, but it's hard. I'm not putting all our troubles on Drew, but I'm not feeling sorry for the fact that he's expected to do a lot. That's what he's paid for.