Rugby Saint II

We got lucky that Drew came along and kept us from languishing as bottom dwellers. I think we should let Drew play as long as he wants and give him the complimentary pieces to do just that...keep playing and winning for the Saints. We need O-line, slot receiver and TE to keep him around longer than Brady!

voodooido

I hope we do lose him. TB is Aaron brooks 2.0. Same style and over hyped the same way

Utah_Saint

If rumors of Payton’s departure are hurting the future plans of this team, then he needs to man up and confirm or deny.

saintfan

I always stood up for Aaron Brooks. I defended him and I still do. Brooks was never what was wrong with the team, and frankly I still believe a lot of the Brooks hate was because people wanted to see Jake 'homie' Delhomme and Brooks was in the way. Brooks was not a bad QB.

Having said all that, and I am in no way an NFL talent evaluator, I think Teddy is in a different league than Brooks and is hardly AB 2.0. I think we'd be extremely blessed if we could figure out a way to keep him around another year or two so he could take over when Drew retires.

But that's just my .02

C'mon Man...

vpheughan

A good QB who literally laughed at throwing interceptions.

CheramieIII

Bridgewater staying with the Saints!

CHA_CHING

This!!!

Aaron Brooks was not the problem on those Haslett Saints teams and I'll defend him from his early years before he collapsed.

Was he an elite QB? No, but he wasn't a scrub. I think a lot of the hate Brooks gets is from younger fans who don't remember the days when we had utter crap QBs... If you lived through the Mora era QBs (excluding Jim Everett who's 1994 and 1995 seasons were the best years of a Saints QB before the 2000's), then trust me, you learned to appreciate Brooks.


As for the Delhomme vs Brooks arguments, I think people forget that Brooks had a MUCH better TD/INT ratio than golden boy Delhomme during Carolina's 2003 Cinderella run.

Brooks had 24 TDs and 8 INTs in 2003 with a Y/A of 6.8 and 59.1% completion percentage.

Delhomme had 19 TDs and 16 INTs with a Y/A of 6.4 and a 59.2% completion percentage.

There was a huge difference between the two and there is a reason Delhomme never really lit the league on fire after 2005 (his last solid season).

The Panthers went 11-5 with 12 of their games of the year being decided by 7 or less points. They had a remarkable 10-2 record in these close games. Only one of their wins all year was by more than 7 points. Many of those wins were flukey with the ball bouncing their way numerous times and them getting lucky. They didn't dominate anybody, and in 2 of their losses, they were dominated (Tennessee blew them out and Philly beat them convincingly). I hated that Panthers team with a burning passion that year because of this. I knew they weren't that good, but kept getting lucky week after week.

They were a flukey team that year with a lot of luck and their luck continued in the playoffs with a weak NFC. Remember when they played the Rams? Marc Bulger had a terrible game that day tossing 3 INTs and practically gift-wrapping that game for Carolina, and yet they couldn't shut the door on them that day. That Rams team was the old remnants of the GSOT team with a younger QB who stunk it up in the playoffs. They went to two overtime quarters and eventually won on a Delhomme bomb with blown coverage after the Rams defense had finally worn themselves down to exhaustion. That game should've never went to OT in the first place.

They beat the Eagles in the NFCCG which isn't much of a feat. Andy Reid's Eagles were the most under-achieving NFC team of the 2000's (Philly went a remarkable 1-4 in the NFCCG under Reid and their lone win came against a banged up Falcons squad that had overachieved getting there).

I re-watched the Panthers/Patriots SB back in the summer of 2017 and a couple things stood out to me -

#1. Delhomme did not have a good completion percentage in this game (16 or 33) but threw 3 TDs and over 300+ yards, so this makes the DVOA stats go all out of whack. It looks like he had a great game, but he wasn't efficient and his big yardage numbers came off big plays that happened late in the game... The next point is the main reason why he had such a good looking game despite bad efficiently numbers. Delhomme also had a lost fumble in this game that is often forgot about.

#2. New England was up 21-10 when Rodney Harrison left the game with a broken arm. This is important, cause before Harrison left with injury, Carolina was struggling with their passing game all day and couldn't move down the field. New England was getting ready to drop the hammer and blow them the hell out when Harrison got injured. He had completely shut down Steve Smith who was quiet for most of the game and Muhammad did not go off until after Harrison left the game. Delhomme was having a bad game and most likely continues to struggle if not for this key injury. After Harrison leaves, that's when he begins lighting them up.

#3. When the score was 21-16 in the 4th quarter, Brady threw an INT in the endzone after a time consuming drive where they had marched down the field at ease. This was a crucial moment, cause after that INT is when Delhomme hit Muhammad for the 85 yard bomb to give Carolina their first lead (again, this is after Harrison leaves the game). If Brady don't throw that INT and the Pats score another TD, they put the game out of reach again up 28-16.

#4. The Pats had over 450+ yards of offense, completely outgaining Carolina in offensive production and efficiency. Brady was sacked zero times and if you look back at the game, he had all day to throw most of the time, rarely ever pressured. The Pats were walking up and down the field that whole game on the vaunted Carolina defense.

Seriously, that Super Bowl could've been a blow out and almost was. The final score made it look closer than it truly should've been. The Pats were on their way to blowing them out before Harrison left the game.

The old saying that Delhomme would've took our Saints to the SB in 2003 on a Cinderella run is a huge myth... After 2003, Delhomme only had one more season where he was pretty good (2005) and after that, he collapsed hard. Remember the 2008 playoffs? We made fun of him endlessly for throwing all those INTs against the Cardinals.

For all this, I don't regret having Aaron Brooks back then.... and I'm still happy that Carolina lost that SB.