foreverfan

That video was posted on Jan 26, 2019.

Err... we played better defenses at the end of the season.

Old age...? I'm 60 and can still throw it further then when I was 10.

CHA_CHING

Cannot believe he was on a freshman last year.

Something special about that kid. I haven't felt so confident about a college QB since watching Peyton Manning in Tennessee. He reminds me of a young Manning.

jeanpierre

That is a nightmare I want no part...

jeanpierre

hitta

I'm not convinced that Drew's decline last year was a result of age. I believe he injured something in the Dallas game and played hurt all year. I mean if you go back and watch the game, he literally lost some of the velocity on his passes during the game. He probably did something to his shoulder as he has tweaked his shoulder in the past while with us and seems prone to shoulder injuries. Drew will probably come back this year, have the velocity on his passes and everyone will be like "Drew looks like a new man.. blah blah".

st thomas

He got bulldozed in the game before against Atlanta . That’s where I believe he hurt something , a rib , shoulder , etc. u will never no.

CHA_CHING

He was 39 years old turning 40.

It happens.

This is pretty much how Peyton Manning and Brett Favre declined.

Brees' decline last year is almost a complete mirror image of Manning in 2014. Both of them collapsed in week 11. The Broncos had to play the Rams, whom totally exposed their offense and held them to just 7 points. We played Dallas, who practically slapped us around all night and held us to just 10 points.

After that game, Manning was never the same again. Denver transitioned from a juggernaut offense, to just barely winning games and relying on their defense to do all the heavy lifting and make key plays. They lost to the Colts in the playoffs in a game where their defense did everything in the second half, getting 2 turnovers and multiple stops just trying to pull that game out, meanwhile the offense couldn't muster a positive drive.

Broncos fans said Manning was injured in 2014 too. Something was wrong with his foot (and perhaps this was true, cause his foot work was not the same in the second half of the season) but the damage was already done. 2015 he was a complete ghost of his former self and had the worst statistical season of a starting QB who went on to win the SB.

The same thing happened to us after the Dallas loss. We went from a high flying offense, to ranked 31st and 32nd in offensive production for the next 3 weeks and we were relying on the defense to keep games close and even win them outright with game changing plays. This continued in the playoffs when they bailed us out against the Eagles after we did everything to just barely score 20 points and keep Philly in that game.

I'm praying Brees don't have a collapse like Manning, cause in 2015 that was pretty sad to watch Denver carrying his corpse to a ring. But I'm only bringing this up because the decline WILL happen, as it happens to everyone. Age catches up with everyone eventually. Favre and Brady at 40 were both legit MVP contenders and they also fell.

Speaking of Brady, if you pull his advanced stats from last year, he was not one of the top QBs and had a steep decline over 2017 when he was in the top 3. He was 41 years old and the decline was obviously seen in his percentage completion beyond 20 yards. When Brady is chucking it over the middle beyond 20 yards, he's basically throwing it up for grabs. The Pats were smart to dump Brandin Cooks and then completely change their offensive scheme around a run-heavy set up and utilizing play action and short yardage passing. Sony Michel was the offensive MVP for them last year and they straight up killed the Chargers and Chiefs in the playoffs running screens. They aren't fools, they know Brady has declined and they had to do something to change their offense to accommodate for a 41 year old QB. It also helped that the Pats were able to quickly fix their defensive woes last year, so they wouldn't have to rely on a 41 year old QB to score 30-40 points to win games, like their SB loss to Philly came down to.

I'm pretty sure Payton is thinking the same thing and that has been why our offense has been shifting from less pass-heavy and to more run based. Fans complained all through 2017 cause Brees didn't have a monster game with 400-500 passing yards and 5 TDs, but that was done intentionally to accommodate for his age. We need to be thankful this team has invested in o-line and they've made drastic improvements to fix the defense. These will be the keys if we get close to another SB.

The Dude

I think we have both been saying this since late last season. The fact the offensive line was so beat up didn’t help his performance. Wouldn’t surprise me if he had a career year.

st thomas

Agree agree dilly dilly

K Major

Wait,

Didn't Brees end the 2018 season as the #2 ranked QB and a QBR of 80.8 only behind Pat Mahomes?

Nevermind ... for all of you PFF stat enthusiasts, open linky.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/new...he-nfl-in-2018