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There are few quarterbacks in the NFL as decorated as New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
He’s basically done it all during his time in the league. He survived some early-career adversity and he’s since been recognized as one of the best to ever do it. He’s become a Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl MVP. He has won numerous Pro Bowls, the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award and the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year Award. He’s the NFL’s career passing-yardage leader with nearly 80,000 passing yards since 2001. For the better part of the past two decades, Brees has consistently been recognized as one of the top quarterbacks in the league.
Entering Week 15, Brees’ status is questionable due to a significant rib injury suffered earlier in the year. The talk so far has indicated that he’s unlikely to play this week. Typically that’d have most opponents jumping for joy, but not Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.
A young and impressionable Mahomes got to watch Brees, also a Texas native, do his thing in the NFL throughout the prime of his career. It should come as no surprise that Mahomes has the ultimate respect and admiration for Brees.
“100%. Obviously, him being from Texas and then going to the Chargers, dealing with adversity there and then going to the Saints, and just being consistently at the top of the game year in and year out,” Mahomes told reporters on Wednesday. “It is truly special, to be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and to be able to consistently produce every single year. Hopefully, we get to go up against him or I get to go up against him. But if not, hopefully, we’ll get to face him some other time. Because you want to play against those great quarterbacks that you watch growing up, that were kind of guys that you looked up to and the way that they played the game.”
It’s a sentiment that Mahomes echoed last season after his kneecap dislocation injury forced him out of the Chiefs’ Week 8 game against the Green Bay Packers and QB Aaron Rodgers. He always wants an opportunity to go up against players that have been considered the best, players that he has looked up to, studied and perhaps learned from.
It’s no slight to Taysom Hill, who is 3-1 as a starter in place of Brees this season. However, if Brees is unable to go on Sunday, Mahomes will be slightly disappointed.
“Yeah, I mean it is a little bit [disappointing],” Mahomes said. “Obviously, I have a ton of respect for Taysom (Hill) and the way that he’s been able to play and produce. I watched him when I was in college and now in the NFL, the way he’s able to go out there to throw the ball, be a quarterback, but also be one of the best athletes on the field. It’s truly special, but you want to go up against those great quarterbacks that have done it for a long time. [Brees is] another Texas guy— a guy that I’ve met a couple of times and is just a great guy.”
The Kansas City defense will be tasked with preparing for both potential options at the quarterback position, just as they did with Dolphins quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Ryan Fitzpatrick the week prior. No matter who the Chiefs will face at the quarterback position come Sunday, they’ll be prepared. It’ll be a matchup between two of the top teams in their respective conferences and Mahomes will be ready to give them the dual of a lifetime.
“Regardless, we’re playing against a great team and we’ll be ready to go.”
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