Why the Saints need to pay Drew Brees ASAP
By CLIFF BRUNT
ISL Editor
The New Orleans Saints still won’t pay Drew Brees.
I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence.
The bounty situation was bad enough. Now, the Saints have done the only thing that could make things worse. They have dragged their feet and failed to agree to a long-term deal with the man who is most responsible for making a former laughingstock relevant. The Saints say they want to make it work, but talk is cheap until a deal is done. Brees has until July 16 to sign a long-term contract or settle for the one-year franchise tender of $16.371 million the Saints have offered.
It’s mind-blowing that the process has taken this long.
Brees is arguably the greatest sports hero in New Orleans history. He brought the city a championship and broke Dan Marino’s longstanding passing yardage record.
It should also be noted that Brees is beloved both in New Orleans because of his efforts to give the city hope after Hurricane Katrina, and at his alma mater, Purdue, because he still talks about the school as though he just graduated. When the Colts played the Saints in the Super Bowl in 2010, the greater Lafayette area, just a little over an hour from Indianapolis, was split because of Brees.
During Super Bowl week this year, Brees was in Indianapolis, promoting fitness by inspiring kids to play active games on XBox 360. He even joined in to demonstrate. (http://twitpic.com/8ewthc)
And who can forget the Verizon commercial, where he leads the team’s now famous pregame chant. (http://bit.ly/oKLOFt). That’s leadership. The man stands for something, and he inspires loyalty like few others.
Brees believes he has earned a long-term deal comparable to the best. And why not? You see, Brees is, by many measures, the best quarterback in the National Football League. He is unquestionably the most productive over the past five years. Yet, while Peyton Manning, who is coming off a major injury and is three years older got his deal, Brees waits.
Brees has been named the NFL’s offensive player of the year twice. Over the past five years, he has the most yards passing (23,976) in the league – only he and San Diego’s Philip Rivers have more than 20,000. Brees has 175 touchdown passes during that span, 22 more than second-place Tom Brady. Perhaps the most stunning statistic is that he has the most attempts, by nearly 500 over Eli Manning, yet has the highest completion percentage, better than 68 percent. For as often as he throws and as much is put on him, Brees has the third-highest passer rating during that span, behind just Brady and Aaron Rodgers, and Brees has played 79 games to 65 for Brady and 64 for Rodgers so he’s had more opportunity to come back to Earth. He’s also been durable – only Eli Manning and Rivers have played the maximum 80 games in those five years; Brees is right behind.
Last season, Brees led an offense that set NFL records for yards passing and total yards. New Orleans’ 467.1 yards per game eclipsed the Los Angeles Rams’ record of 450.8 set 50 years earlier.
Then, there is Brees’ postseason success.
He has a Super Bowl win. Only Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger can say the same in the past five years. In that Super Bowl, Brees beat Peyton Manning head-to-head, completing 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns to earn MVP honors.
He might have been at his best during last season’s playoffs. In the first round, he passed for 466 yards in a win over Detroit, the second-most ever in a playoff game. He followed that by passing for 462 yards, the third-best yardage total ever, in a loss to San Francisco. He led the Saints to a go-ahead touchdown with less than two minutes remaining, but they lost 36-32.
He has done all this with no superstar skill position players. Reggie Bush, while explosive, doesn’t qualify. Tight end Jimmy Graham might be a star, but he just got there. He hasn’t had an established, game-changing threat for an extended period of time. Marques Colston is the closest, with 5,202 yards in 72 games. Nice, but hardly superstar numbers. Eight different players have at least 1,000 yards receiving for the team during the past five years, but only Colston has more than 3,000.
Plus, Brees is only 33 years old. He’s got plenty of good years ahead.
The Saints have three choices. They can pay Brees now. They can drag this out and pay Brees later. Or they can pay later for not paying him.
One thing for sure about Brees – he’s a beast when he’s got a chip on his shoulder. The undersized passer was overlooked by the Texas colleges when he came out of high school, so he went to Purdue, became a Heisman finalist and led the Boilermakers to the Rose Bowl. The San Diego Chargers didn’t make the offer Brees wanted after the 2005 season because they weren’t sure how he’d recover from a shoulder injury, so he went on to New Orleans and became the most prolific quarterback of his era and a world champion.
You could argue that Brees is the product of Sean Payton’s system, except he was a Pro Bowl quarterback in San Diego before he went to New Orleans.
Before the Saints make the mistake of trying not to pay Brees what he’s worth, they should remember one thing. He has made a career of turning doubters into believers. If somehow he ends up somewhere else, it can only turn out badly for the Saints. As good as Rivers has been, who do you really think San Diego would rather have? Saints, you want that chip on Brees’ shoulder working for you, not against you. Pay the man.
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