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Where were you the first time Drew Brees nearly broke Dan Marino’s record for the most passing yards in a single season? Do you remember watching him spark a comeback over the Miami Dolphins with a touchdown leap — which arguably became his signature move — followed by an emphatic dunk over the goalpost, in the same stadium he and the New Orleans Saints would later win a Super Bowl, defeating New Orleans’ native son Peyton Manning head-to-head to do it?
What about the late-game touchdown pass to Darren Sproles to shatter Marino’s record and leave the first of many bad memories for Atlanta Falcons fans? And the bizarre Bountygate season in which Brees did his best to pull a team working with an interim-interim head coach to a 7-9 record, shackled with the worst defense in NFL history? Followed up by subsequently worse defenses and more 7-9 finishes, with Brees putting the team on his back week in and week out?
That trip down memory lane is to help remind us of where the Saints came from to get here. They’re finally at a stage where the rest of the roster hasn’t just caught up to Brees, but where they’ve passed him by. At 42 and with injuries piling up, No. 9 is poised to enjoy a well-earned retirement.
And the Saints should continue to win without him. He wasn’t the same quarterback in 2020, 2019, or even 2018 that he was before, which isn’t a knock on him. Father Time waits for no one: not Marino, not Manning, and not Brees. A decline was expected, and we experienced it, and now it’s time to put it in rearview.
Just look at the pieces the Saints have assembled to support their next quarterback. They have two All-Pro pillars on offense in Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas, who would have been back-to-back Offensive Players of the Year if things had broken a little differently. Their offensive line is the toast of the league. The defense is littered with Pro Bowlers and All-Pros like Cameron Jordan, Demario Davis, and Malcolm Jenkins.
The state of the Saints right now is so solid that there’s serious debate on whether Marshon Lattimore, a cornerback who’s won three Pro Bowl nods in his first four years, is worth re-signing this offseason. That’s how far we’ve come from the 2015 defense that allowed 45 touchdown catches (against Brees’ 32 scoring passes).
It’s such an impressive degree of depth and talent that key starters like defensive tackle David Onyemata, left tackle Terron Armstead, right tackle Ryan Ramczyk, and cornerback Janoris Jenkins only get mentioned here in an aside. The Saints are loaded on both sides of the ball.
Even the special teams unit is envied around the league. Return man Deonte Harris earned every possible accolade last year and looks to be a keeper for the long haul, if his health improves. Longtime punter Thomas Morstead has a succession plan in place through Blake Gillikin, a promising rookie. Gunners like Justin Hardee, J.T. Gray, and Marquez Callaway would be prized additions to nearly any team.
Leaving a place better than you found it is maybe the best accomplishment any of us can hope for. And Brees has done that in New Orleans by setting a new standard for pro football in the city. He’s won the team’s first Super Bowl. He’s made them annual title contenders. And the roster built around him has, over time, grown to help cover his own faults and shortcomings. Between their smothering defense led by Jordan, Davis, and Jenkins, and the Kamara-Thomas tag-team on offense (orchestrated by Sean Payton, who somehow hasn’t won Coach of the Year since 2006), it’ll survive his loss.
It’s just a shame that Brees was, effectively, toiling alone for so many years. We’ll never know how many Super Bowls the Saints might have won in his prime if the defense had ever been at least mediocre, instead of historically terrible. We’ll never know how many rings Payton may own if he’d cleaned out an underperforming coaching staff sooner, propelling the Saints to their current streak of division titles. Tough as that may be to accept, it’s the sort of thing we have to shrug at and save for arguing with our uncles at Thanksgiving.
Brees hasn’t retired yet. But his decision to accept a pay cut to the veteran’s minimum sure foreshadows his intentions, and it’s time for fans to make their peace with that. We’re awful close to turning a new page in the Saints history books.
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