Brees return to Saints welcomed, appropriate

The deed is done. It is no surprise. It is welcome.

Drew Brees will return for at least another season to play his 20th season in the NFL and his 15th with the New Orleans Saints.

It has been amazing to watch Brees and to appreciate his brilliance.

Almost as amazing is to listen to and read some of the criticism of Brees on some fronts over the past few months. It is as though observers have short-term memories or have simply ignored what has transpired.

Since joining the Saints in 2006, Brees leads all NFL quarterbacks in touchdowns and 300-yard passing games. Brees also holds league records for career pass completions (6,867), career completion percentage (67.6%), career passing yards (77,416) and career touchdown passes (547). He holds the record for most consecutive games with a touchdown pass (54) and is tied for the most touchdown passes in a game (7).

Brees has led the NFL in passing yards seven times and topped the league in completions in six seasons. Brees has led the league in average yards passing per game six times and in completion percentage five times and led the NFL in touchdown passes a record-tying four times. Brees has topped the NFL in Quarterback Rating twice. He has made the Pro Bowl 13 times.

Brees led the Saints to a Super Bowl XLIV championship, earning Most Valuable Player honors in a brilliant performance in a 31-17 win over Indianapolis.

Brees also set the NFL record for completion percentage in a game, going an amazing 29-of-30 (96.7%) while throwing for 307 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-7 victory over Indianapolis at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

For scoffers, the issues are obvious.

Brees is 41. Brees has lost his fastball. Brees is declining. The Saints have not gotten to the Super Bowl with a good team in each of the last three years. Brees costs a ton of money which hurts the salary cap.

All of those are issues worthy of consideration.

Brees is aging but he is aging gracefully and quite well. He is still incredibly sharp, one of the two smartest quarterbacks in the league (see Tom Brady) and he remains deadly accurate.

As for his fastball, he never really had one.

What he has lost a bit is his ability to drive the ball down the field, particularly the deep ball but his timing throws can make up for much of that.

Additionally, the Saints have lacked a real deep threat, outside of Ted Ginn Jr., anyway. Ginn is in decline as well and not nearly the threat he once was in his prime.

The Saints falling short of the Super Bowl is true. How much of that is on Brees?

The Minnesota Miracle had nothing to do with Brees, who rallied the Saints from way down to take the lead late in a game they should have won.

The Nola No-Call had nothing to do with Brees against the Los Angeles Rams. The interception in overtime came when a block was missed, Brees was hit and the ball popped up in the air and was picked off. That was certainly not the fault of Brees.

The Vikings game this past season saw Brees put up acceptable numbers but he did not play well enough. Of course, his receivers were complicit in that but most of all, the offensive line getting whipped was a bigger part of the failure to advance.

As for the cost of Brees, that is to be determined. Elite players deserve to be paid at elite levels. It is the job of Mickey Loomis to manage the salary structure of his team.

Then, there is this.

The three highest completion percentage seasons in Brees’ career have come in his last three seasons, at the ages of 38, 39 and 40. He turned 41 last month.

Despite missing five games last season and playing with a thumb injury which had to impact his throwing ability and velocity, Brees guided the Saints to an 8-3 record, completed 74.3 percent of his passes and threw 27 touchdown passes with just four interceptions. His Quarterback Rating of 116.3 was superb, second in the league behind Ryan Tannehill (117.5).

Simply put, he is still an elite NFL quarterback and playing at a high level.

Surely, his skills will diminish, at some point, but we have not seen that yet, not to any measurable dynamic.

Brees is universally respected by his teammates and is joined at the hip with Sean Payton and Pete Carmichael. Brees is an extension of those coaches on the field, essentially another coach on the field. No one, other than Brady, can manipulate a defense more at the line-of-scrimmage with his eyes and with his changing of plays.

It will be sad to see Teddy Bridgewater depart.

Bridgewater was widely popular and earned the love and respect he received by doing an excellent job when Brees went down. Bridgewater overcame a horrific knee injury in 2016 which nearly ended his career. He worked his tail off to return.

Bridgewater guided the Saints to a 5-0 record while completing 67.9 percent of his passes with nine touchdown passes and just to interceptions. His Quarterback Rating was 99.1, quite good.

Bridgewater is 27 and deserves a chance to start.

As reported by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, he will have multiple suitors who are willing to pony up and pay him handsomely at a price the New Orleans Saints cannot afford for a reserve quarterback.

Timing is everything.

This was simply not Teddy’s time in New Orleans, not with a Hall of Fame quarterback, truly one of the greatest quarterbacks ever, still in the fold, wanting to play and still playing quite well.

Here is wishing Bridgewater not just the best but the very best for an outstanding career.

As for Taysom Hill, I believe the national reports that the Saints and Payton are enamored of his ability as a quarterback. I believe the reports which state that Hill will play a larger role and get more snaps at quarterback in 2020.

With Brees in the fold, there is the comfort level of utilizing Hill in more of those “specialty” situations at quarterback, giving him more experience and giving his coaching staff a larger sample size to analyze whether Hill can be the man in 2021 or 2022 for the Saints.

Yes, Hill is 30. Yes, he has only completed 6-of-13 passes for 119 yards with an interception in a very small audition as an NFL quarterback. Yes, questions remain about his decision making and accuracy.

Still, with the amazing athletic ability and good arm, Hill is intriguing.

With the trend of the league going toward mobile quarterbacks who can extend plays and make first downs and score touchdowns with their legs as well as their arms, it makes sense.

The safety net is obvious.

If you do not like what you see of Hill as a quarterback, you invest in one at the top of the draft, either in 2021 or 2022, if not sooner.

Yes, it is a calculated gamble.

Bridgewater is a good game manager, a solid player who is accurate enough. He has been a starting quarterback for a playoff team in Minnesota and helped the Saints make the playoffs a year ago. He can start and succeed in this league.

If Brees was retiring or was not here, Bridgewater would remain. That is almost a no-brainer but it also a no-brainer that you bring Brees back.

Hill, in the eyes of those running the show, has a chance to be an elite play-maker, drawing comparisons to the likes of league MVP’s Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes, along with others like Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, Kyler Murray and Josh Allen, all dual threat quarterbacks.

Brees stated in his Instagram post that was returning that “the reward at the end will be worth it.”

That is the final reason that the return of Brees is both right and good.

If the New Orleans Saints were a below average team, Brees likely would have retired, having stated that he would not play for another NFL team.

If the New Orleans Saints were an average, mediocre team, Brees may have retired.

The New Orleans Saints are none of the above.

They remain a top-shelf NFL team, a true contender, likely only behind the 49ers in the NFC in terms of favorites for Super Bowl LV in Tampa on Feb. 7, 2021.

Playing at a high level, playing for a true contender, playing for coaching staff at a total comfort level, playing with the likes of Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara, Jared Cook, Ryan Ramczyk and Terron Armstead is appealing, too appealing to walk away.

Now, Loomis, Jeff Ireland and Payton have to find another legitimate weapon for Brees and to improve its defense a tad to give the Saints to get over the top. We have seen how Brady looks without weapons at the age of 42 and it was not a pretty picture with a Quarterback Rating of 88.0.

With Brees playing the way he has played, the Saints can make another Super Bowl.

It can happen, thanks to the presence of No. 9 in black and gold.

Welcome back, Drew! It is great to have an opportunity to see you continue to do what you do so well. Now, it is time to put the cherry on top of the whipped cream of an incredibly sweet career. It would have been nuts not to want him back.