Drew Brees says even retired quarterbacks are relieved by Aaron Donald’s retirement

Drew Brees says even retired quarterbacks are relieved by Aaron Donald’s big news. He wished his old rival well in retirement:

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Even retired quarterbacks are happy to see Aaron Donald hanging up his cleats. Or at least that’s how Drew Brees feels. The legendary New Orleans Saints quarterback congratulated his old rival “on an unbelievable career” with the Los Angeles Rams, where Donald spent a decade sacking passers like Brees.

They went head-to-head five times, including the playoffs, with Brees’ Saints winning twice (and the less said of that playoff debacle, the better). Donald sacked Brees twice but hit the quarterback 11 times, including the infamous play that broke Brees’ throwing hand early in the 2019 season. Talk about a worthy opponent.

Ten years and ten Pro Bowls, with a Super Bowl championship to his name. Donald was the best defender in the sport during his time in the league and should be an easy choice for enshrinement at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 202, just a few years after Brees will have earned a bronze bust in 2026.

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Drew Brees announces scholarship in honor of retiring Eagles center Jason Kelce

Drew Brees announced a scholarship in honor of retiring Eagles center Jason Kelce aimed at supporting walk-on college athletes:

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Drew Brees continues to do great deeds off the field. The former New Orleans Saints great has announced a scholarship honoring Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, who started his college career as a walk-on at Cincinnati. Kelce announced his retirement last week after 13 seasons.

Brees shared the big news on social media, saying the scholarship will be awarded to 13 walk-on collegiate athletes. These scholarships will be given out on behalf of Walk-On’s Bistreaux, a restaurant chain of which Brees is the co-owner.

“These scholarships represent more than just financial aid. They’re a salute to the relentless spirit and unwavering dedication that drives athletes to excel, mirroring the qualities that Jason Kelce showcased throughout his career,” Brees said during his announcement.

Kelce steps away from the game as one of the most decorated offensive linemen of his generation. He earned seven Pro Bowl nominations, six first-team All-Pro selections and a Super Bowl championship. To say the least, a very accomplished career for the former walk-on.

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Jahri Evans passed over for Hall of Fame induction in the Class of 2024

Jahri Evans was passed over for Hall of Fame induction in the Class of 2024. Having to wait longer is disappointing, but the payoff could make it easier to accept:

We’ll start with the bad news. The Pro Football Hall of Fame will not induct Jahri Evans in its Class of 2024 — the New Orleans Saints legend was passed over in favor of other deserving players, including several who had to wait longer than they should have for enshrinement. Evans will have to wait at least one more year to earn his bronze bust and gold jacket in Canton.

Now the good news. It’s disappointing that Evans has to wait a while longer for such powerful recognition, but the payoff might be worth it. If he’s inducted in the Class of 2025 (which seems likely; he was a semifinalist in his first year of eligibility before progressing to the finalist stage in his second turn) then Evans will earn the nod in the same year, and a few days before, Super Bowl LIX is played at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. That would be a fine occasion.

And if not? If Evans’ case lingers in discussion another year, drawing out into 2026, he could go into the Hall of Fame with his legendary quarterback. Drew Brees will be eligible to enter the Hall of Fame for the first time in 2026 which would be Evans’ fourth year of eligibility. He’s a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer, and getting him and his best blocker in together would be awful special.

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Where ESPN ranked the 2009 Saints among 57 Super Bowl-winning teams

Did ESPN get it right? Where they ranked the 2009 Saints among 57 Super Bowl-winning teams:

Where do you rank the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl XLIV-winning squad among the greatest teams of all time? Or at least, among the NFL’s other 57 champions?

That’s a question that ESPN writer Aaron Schatz set out to answer. Using his advanced-stat DVOA ratings (which you can read more about here), Schatz estimated the play-by-play efficiency for every team to win a Super Bowl.

And his findings have the 2009 Saints at No. 32. New Orleans fielded a high-powered offense and an opportunistic defense that year, outscoring the next-best team by 40 points (at 510, far above the second-place Minnesota Vikings at 470) and nearly tying the league lead with 39 takeaways (the Green Bay Packers had 40).

The Saints achieved a level of dominance that season that’s only rarely seen. We’ll let Schatz explain it further:

The Saints led the NFL in DVOA after a 13-0 start but fell to sixth because of a three-game losing streak to finish off the regular season. (Their starters played in the first two of those three losses, but not the third.) The Saints were second on offense, narrowly behind the Patriots, but 13th on defense and 28th on special teams.

Their DVOA moves up nicely thanks to some big playoff victories. They dominated Arizona 45-14 in the divisional round. The NFC championship required overtime and a Brett Favre interception for a 31-28 victory over the Vikings. But then the Saints beat the Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV, capped off by a Tracy Porter pick-six off Peyton Manning.

It’s disappointing that the 2009 Saints were not ranked higher, but the numbers back it u p. They allowed the 12th-most yards per play that season on defense. No team gave up more yards per punt return (14.3) and they were fourth-worst in yards per kick return (24.5). But they made up for it with an offense that few teams could match and, critically, key stops on defense with sacks and turnovers.

That may have been a difficult strategy to sustain, but it took the Saints all the way to the Super Bowl. And when the chips were down, that same hungry defense sealed the win with one of the most memorable plays in franchise history. And we shouldn’t overlook the benefits of having a Hall of Fame quarterback in the prime of his career leading the way, either.

Now, what’s frustrating — and we’re twisting the knife here, so stop reading if you are not in the right headspace to receive information that could possibly hurt you — is how low Schatz ranked some of the teams that won the Super Bowl in years that got away from New Orleans. The 2011 New York Giants, who advanced on a miracle overtime run over the San Francisco 49ers (and who lost to the Saints in a regular season blowout) clocked in at No. 56 out of 57 Super Bowl winners. If Gregg Williams’ defense had held up against the 49ers in the final minutes of their divisional round classic, Drew Brees might have two Super Bowl rings.

Heck, he could have had three. The 2018 Patriots knocked out the Los Angeles Rams to win a championship after L.A. got through with a lot of help from a botched officiating decision in New Orleans in the conference title game. New England won that title in the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in the history of the sport. Schatz ranked them all the way down at No. 48 in this list. That’s a matchup they could have handled better than the Rams, who lost in a pathetic effort 13-3. Ah well.

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Fans on Twitter push back as Mickey Loomis tries to revise Saints history

Mickey Loomis attempted some revisionist history when comparing Derek Carr’s first year with the Saints to Drew Brees’ debut as the league-leading passer:

New Orleans Saints general manager earned some ire from his team’s fans on social media during his latest appearance on WWL Radio, having tried his hand at some revisionary history. When recapping Derek Carr’s up-and-down first year in New Orleans with WWL’s Jeff Nowak, Loomis made an impressive misstep in comparing Carr’s lack of success to the challenges Brees experienced in his first year on the job as the Saints’ starting quarterback.

“I mean, this is Derek’s first year with us and if we went back to 2006 and looked at Brees’ first season or with us, you wouldn’t say, ‘Wow, that guy is going to the Hall of Fame’ after season 1 or season 2, so sometimes it takes a while for us to be familiar with him,” Loomis mused. “For him to have a real grasp of the offense, in terms of being reactive instead of thinking and making a play and getting on the same page with our staff, our coaches as well as our players.”

Archival materials aren’t as common dating back to 2006 — which makes sense given the Saints’ status in a smaller market with a decreased media presence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina — but here’s what one of the longest-tenured analysts on the beat had to say at time.

Writing for the Houma Courier, Mike Detillier recapped Brees’ first 13 games as such: “Brees has been just what the football doctor ordered for the Saints as far as intelligence, leadership, production and gamesmanship is concerned. … The former Purdue All-American and his former teammate in San Diego, halfback LaDainian Tomlinson, should be the co-MVP’s in the league this season.”

And speaking as someone who lived to experience it, no one was calling Brees a future Hall of Famer after his first season. But even the critics who had called him damaged goods over the summer were won over by the time he ended the year with Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro recognition, having lead the NFL in passing yards (4,418). When Brees followed up that performance with more sky-high passing numbers (and, critically, winning seasons and a Super Bowl title) he was being discussed as a Hall of Fame lock by the 2011 record-breaking campaign.

But back to Loomis’ point and the comparison to Carr. It’s true that few fans were putting Brees in Canton going into the final week of the 2006 regular season or even in 2007. At the same time, Brees had done much more to give fans reason to think this team had a future with him under center than Carr has this year.

In 2006, Brees conducted an offense that ranked fifth in scoring, third on third downs, and third in yards per play. Carr’s version of the offense ranks 14th, 16th, and 18th in each of those same categories. And let’s not forget that, at the time, Brees was a 27-year old coming off of reconstructive shoulder surgery with 59 career starts behind him. Carr joined the Saints with five years and 83 more games’ worth of experience behind him.

Sure, Pete Carmichael isn’t the play caller that Sean Payton was, but when you’re comparing players like Loomis is trying to do you’ve got to keep focus limited to those players. Loomis might be trying to pull a fast one on a disgruntled Saints fanbase, but fans on social media rightfully didn’t let it slide. Here’s what they’re saying in response on Twitter, the platform currently known as X:

Saints Twitter does not react kindly to Derek Carr dodging questions

New Orleans Saints fans on Twitter and across social media did not react kindly to Derek Carr dodging questions about his poor performance:

The New Orleans Saints have had a ton of issues in the redzone and it is starting to take its toll on both team and fan morale.

A recent media availability session saw Derek Carr respond with a non-answer to NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill when pressed about his struggles in the red zone:

“I don’t know, man. Gotta ask coach Pete (Carmichael) and (Dennis Allen),” Carr deflected. “When you ask us we’re not gonna be able to give you all the answers that everyone wants to hear on the things we’re trying to work to do better. Schematics and player and all those kinds of things. And so, you’re gonna keep asking the same question I’m gonna keep giving a lot of words and no answer, you know, because I’m not gonna tell you.”

Carr has not thrown a touchdown pass in the past two games, totaling 10 of them in his first 11 games in New Orleans. Fans online are unhappy about his performance and now his attitude with the media, voicing their displeasure with Carr’s answer from across social media:

Drew Brees says he doesn’t throw with his right arm anymore

A Hall of Fame career took a toll on Drew Brees, who says he can’t throw with his right arm anymore:

Legendary former New Orleans Saints quarterback Brees made a recent appearance on ESPN Radio with Mike Greenberg, who asked the future Hall of Famer if he had heard from any NFL teams hoping to bring him out of retirement.

There was some chatter in the year after he hung up his cleats, Brees confided, but dropping back to pass like he used to is out of the question. The long-term impact of injuries in his playing career have made that impossible.

“I don’t throw with my right arm anymore, my right arm does not work,” Brees said. “When I throw in the backyard I throw left handed. I can play pickleball just because it’s below the waist. But anything above my shoulders I’ve got a hard time with. It’s probably, it’s definitely a result of the injury that I suffered when I left San Diego. The dislocated right shoulder, and all that stuff, that I thought I may never play again. But that put me on the fast track to degenerative shoulder, all kinds of arthritic changes, stuff like that.”

Brees added, “I don’t throw with my right arm anymore. If I could, absolutely I’d still be playing.”

That explains a lot. The Saints offense was a shadow of its former self in the final years of Brees’ playing career, condensing everything down tight to the formation and relying on quick and accurate passes to wear down opposing defenses. He wasn’t able to air it out like he used to and attack teams vertically. The heart may have been willing, but the body wasn’t able to keep going.

Years ago, way back in 2005, Brees dislocated his throwing shoulder and tore the cartilage in the joint when trying to recover a fumbled ball. The injury ended his Chargers career and threatened his future in pro football. During surgery, doctors found that Brees had suffered a partial rotator cuff tear, and the procedure suddenly became even more complicated (you can read more about it here).

That Brees was able to not just regain function in his shoulder but use it to throw his way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday is remarkable. It’s just a shame the wear and tear eventually took him out of the game before he could win another Super Bowl title.

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Drew Brees to be enshrined at Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame

Legendary New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees to be enshrined at Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in the Class of 2024:

Here’s one Hall of Fame induction down for Drew Brees. The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame announced Tuesday that the legendary New Orleans Saints quarterback will be inducted as part of the nine-member Class of 2024, with tickets for the three-day event in Natchitoches to become available later this year.

Brees achieved one of the greatest careers in NFL history with the Saints, twice winning recognition as the NFL Offensive Player of the Year as well as nods for the 2006 NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year award, the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award, and the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. Brees led the team to its iconic victory in Super Bowl XLIV and held every significant passing record in league history when he retired from the game.

He’s joined on the Class of 2024 by a number of Louisiana sports standouts including:

  • Seimone Augustus (LSU women’s basketball)
  • Perry Clark (Tulane men’s basketball)
  • Daniel Cormier (mixed martial arts)
  • Wilbert Ellis (Grambling baseball coach)
  • Frank Monica (high school football and baseball coach)
  • Kevin Jackson (LSU wrestling)
  • Kerry Joseph (McNeese State football)
  • Ray Sibille (horse racing)

Brees will be eligible for induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio in 2026, and he’s widely expected to be selected on his first ballot. But honors like this in-state recognition do a lot to help his case — not that the voters needed much more convincing.

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Report: Derek Carr suffered AC joint sprain, return to be determined

Report: Saints QB Derek Carr suffered AC joint sprain, return to be determined

This is a relief. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that the New Orleans Saints believe starting quarterback Derek Carr sprained his right AC joint in Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, which would be a significantly less-severe injury than previously feared.

So how long would it keep him out of action? Rapoport adds that his return “will be determined by the swelling and how he gains mobility” so we’re looking at a matter of weeks, not months, here. The Johns Hopkins University and Hospital says that healing can take two to four weeks, depending on the severity, and if this is a low-grade injury Carr could regain enough functionality in his shoulder to return even sooner. He’s known for returning quickly from injuries.

But the Saints shouldn’t rush him back from an injured throwing shoulder. It’s a long season, and they worked to retain Jameis Winston this spring for a reason. Hopefully he and Taysom Hill can do enough to win a game or two while Carr heals up. We’ll have to wait and see for more-convincing word on his timeline, but everything coming out right now has been leaning towards the positive.

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Drew Brees, Steve Gleason and their families catch up before Saints’ season-opener

Drew Brees, Steve Gleason and their families catch up before Saints’ season-opener

The New Orleans Saints had some big names in the building for their Week 1 kickoff game with the Tennessee Titans. Saints legend Steve Gleason was recognized as an honorary captain for the game’s opening coin toss, and he was joined by his family — who met with future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees and his family before the pregame festivities.

It didn’t take long for Gleason’s children to take Brees’ sons to the turf for a quick wrestling match, with both dads catching up and keeping an eye on them from the sideline. Gleason was wearing Will Smith’s old No. 91 jersey in memory of their late teammate, who was slain in a 2016 road rage shooting. It was an emotional scene at the Caesars Superdome. They may all be iconic Saints players, but these people and their families have been through a lot together.

See some of the sights and sounds for yourself: