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Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

Re: Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

BY NICK UNDERHILL | nunderhill@theadvocate.com Nov 17, 2018 - 10:28 am

Everyone acts like all of this is so normal.

Drew Brees is completing 77 percent of his passes and has only thrown one interception this season, and no one with the Saints seems to think that anything different is going on, including the man piloting the ship.

“Just playing ball,” Brees said. “Just trying to be a good decision maker, knowing that good things happen when I am.”

Brees has just been playing ball for 18 years. Others were doing the same for decades before him. No quarterback has ever had a season quite like this at any point in NFL history. And yet, it’s hard to find anything other than a handful of sleepy adjectives and clichés when you start asking the locker room around about why it is happening.

They say that guys are getting open and Brees is finding them. Everyone is just doing their job.

But there is nothing tired about the season the Saints quarterback is piecing together. Brees currently has the best completion in league history by 5.3 percentage points, which would top his old all-time best, and his 123.8 passer rating would also set the best mark in history.

And remember: he’s doing this at the age of 39. The style points are through the roof. This is not even close to normal, but maybe the reason it feels and looks similar is that Brees has never been normal.

“I think we’ve all been spoiled for a long time when it comes to Drew,” Fox lead game analyst and Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman said. “He’s been highly efficient, but it’s what we’ve come to expect.”

The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback also called Brees’ completion rate “unfathomable” and his interception ratio “incredible,” which are fitting adjectives for the season he is piecing together.

Aikman, who will be in the booth for Sunday’s game against the Eagles, knows a thing or two about being efficient. His completion percentage of 69.1 in 1993, which was the third-highest mark in NFL history at the time. He also completed a record 70 percent of his passes in three Super Bowls.

The former Dallas Cowboy has worked countless Saints games over the years and attended their practices. Aikman continues to be blown away by how Brees continues to work at his craft and still refuses to take shortcuts, which is likely one reason that he is enjoying perhaps the best season of his career at the age of 39. But his accuracy remains the key to it all.

“You can be a great leader, and you tough, and you can be smart and you can do all of these things, but if you can’t put the ball where you want to put it, none of that other stuff matters much,” Aikman said. “He can do that. He throws receivers open all the time. I’ve seen him do it in practice. It’s a real skill and an art in which he prepares each week.”

The Saints say nothing has changed. The offense is still the offense. Indeed, it helps to be supported by one of the league’s better offensive lines and running games, but Brees still has to make the throws. It also helps he's often in advantageous positions in regards to the score and down and distance this season, which has helped mitigate risks.

Brees has only had to attempt 30 passes when needing 7 or more yards on third down this season, or 3.3 passes per game. He has connected on 63.3 percent of those throws. Between 2006-2017, he averaged 4.9 such attempts per game and completed 66.4 percent of his 920 attempts with 34 interceptions.

Even still, for the Saints, this is just Drew being Drew. It's all so normal that running back Mark Ingram says the team hasn’t even really discussed the way Brees is playing.

“I don’t think he surprises anyone in the locker room,” Ingram said. “We know the amount of work he puts in. We know the attention to detail he puts into it. We know how much it means to him.”

And it doesn’t sound like Brees has thought about it much beyond the things that he typically thinks about when preparing for an upcoming opponent.

“There are a lot of those things you mentioned that equate to winning football, right?” he said. “They probably go hand-in-hand with good decision making, right? Good productivity. Scoring points. Winning games, right? So at the end of the day, the objective’s to win, but you have to understand what helps you get to that point, right? All those things are factors.”

But even if the Saints haven’t thought about this much, and this all feels normal, just keep Aikman’s words in mind. The season Brees is having is unfathomable and incredible. Remember to appreciate it for what it is.

Re: Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

Dude is playing lights out.

Re: Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

The fact that he has elite players on offense in Thomas, Kamara, and Ingram is helping. Not as big of a cast as he’s had in the past but far superior to anyone he’s had yet. The line is playing lights out. He’s always been behind above average lines but these guys are unreal. I always said that if we get a couple of elite players at skill positions it would greatly extend his career. I wasn’t even putting our line into that equation.

Re: Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

Sing his praises now, but I remember folks here calling for him to be traded in the last few seasons. You know who you are.

Re: Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

was it 4th and 7 or 3rd and 7 instead of a quick route for 8 yeards they go bomb to Kamara for a TD. I mean that was just the play that speaks for me how great this run has been.

Re: Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

Quote:

Originally Posted by WHODATINCA (Post 824623)

Sing his praises now, but I remember folks here calling for him to be traded in the last few seasons. You know who you are.

I hold my hands up, I thought Brees and Payton were done. 3 straight 7-9 seasons and then an 0-2 start to 2017 and I was ready to call the curtain on Paytons tenure, whilst getting as many draft picks as we could for Brees.

Truly special team we have and all credit to those guys.

Re: Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

Quote:

Originally Posted by WHODATINCA (Post 824623)

Sing his praises now, but I remember folks here calling for him to be traded in the last few seasons. You know who you are.

Not me. I have been saying all along that Brees has another five or six years left if he wants and he has stated on MANY occasions that he has much more to accomplish and as long as he's playing at a high level he wants to remain playing as the Saints QB. I feel this Saints team has the personnel to remain a factor for the Super Bowl for several more years ONLY if Brees and Payton remain.

Re: Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

Brees' Passer Rating through 10 Games ---> 126.9.

Insane totals considering the defenses we've had to face.

Re: Drew Brees might make it seem normal, but incredible season should not be taken for granted

Quote:

Originally Posted by AsylumGuido (Post 824676)

But how do you judge that? A down season for Drew could be a good seson fora QB on another team. Look at Brady this year. Not a bad season BUT not what we expect.

So...should this be Brady's last season?