Teams
- San Diego Chargers (2001-2005)
- New Orleans Saints (2006-2020)
Accolades
- Super Bowl Champion (XLIV)
- Super Bowl MVP (XLIV)
- 13x Pro Bowl (2004, 2006, 2008-2014, 2016-2019)
- First-Team All-Pro (2006)
- 4x Second-Team All-Pro (2008-2009, 2011, 2018)
- 2x NFL Offensive Player of the Year (2008, 2011)
- NFL Comeback Player of the Year (2004)
- Bert Bell Award (2009)
- Walter Payton Man of the Year (2006)
“I feel like I’ve learned so much throughout my career, and that’s a product of being around so many great people. Great teammates, great coaches, great mentors. Gratitude. Humility. And respect. The three greatest qualities you can have as a human being. But what is amazing is that sports will teach you things like that. The more that I’ve had a chance to play, the more grateful I’ve been able to become, the more humble, the more respectful of the game and those that play it, and the relationships from it.”
-Drew Brees (source)
“…nobody works harder than [Drew Brees]. I just try to keep up with him when I’m out there.”
-Aaron Rodgers, Quarterback, Green Bay Packers (source)
“I don’t see any weaknesses. He’s productive in all situations — big plays, third down, red area. He’s athletic, he can extend plays, he’s a good decision maker, gets rid of the ball quickly, sees defensive mistakes and opportunities very well. He’s got great vision and anticipation, good game management, good situational football player. He’s smart, very accurate. Not really any weaknesses to his game.”
-Bill Belichick, Head Coach, New England Patriots (source)
Drew Brees’ reputation on the field is seems to be matched only by his reputation off of it (although even he has not been exempt from criticism either). Admittedly, that’s what’s most important in life. But on the football field, Drew Brees has achieved numbers that would have been considered unheard of when his career started. Not just for him either, but for any quarterback. It’s all the more impressive considering that his first few years in San Diego were hardly earth-shattering. Then he got to New Orleans and suddenly no passing record was safe. But more on that in a bit. In the meantime, Drew Brees has achieved almost every accolade that can be attained by a signal caller. For his abilities on the field, and his achievements off of it, it’s almost impossible to root against perhaps the greatest pure passer in NFL history.
Despite coming off three exceptional years as Purdue University’s starting quarterback, NFL general managers weren’t drooling over the undersized (6’0”) Drew Brees during the 2001 Draft. But in a relatively weak year for college QBs, Brees would be taken with the first pick of the second round, becoming the second signal caller taken after Michael Vick went #1 overall. The San Diego Chargers saw the Big Ten veteran as their franchise replacement for the failed Ryan Leaf experiment. Brees would learn pro quarterbacking in his rookie year, sitting behind established NFL/CFL/NFL veteran Doug Flutie, throwing only 27 passes on the year. San Diego would finish 5-11.
Drew “The Nice, Cool” Brees would take over primary signal calling duties in 2002 under new Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer, starting all 16 games. The Chargers improved to 8-8, but also blew a 6-1 start. Brees would complete over 60% of his passes for nearly 3,300 yards, but only 17 TD to 16 INTs would hold him to a 76.9 passer rating. He would decline in ’03, replaced by Flutie after a poor 1-7 start. He would regain the starting role during the final three games of the year though, but the damage had long-since been done, as the Bolts finished 4-12.
The 2004 season would be a make or break year for Brees, as the Chargers drafted QB Philip Rivers of North Carolina State at the top of the NFL Draft. Yet while Rivers would only get to throw eight passes during the regular season, Brees would thrive under the pressure. His TD rate (6.8%) and INT rate (1.8%) were both third-best in the league, as was his 104.8 passer rating. His effort was good enough to help lead the Chargers to 12-4 and an AFC West title, although they would have to host the Jets in the Wild Card Round. Brees would play exceptionally well, going 31-for-42 for 319 yards, two touchdowns, and one pick. But his counterpart on the other team, Chad Pennington, would perform just as well and the Jets would win on an overtime field goal, 20-17.
During the ’05 season Brees would have one more chance to show San Diego that they had made a mistake in drafting his supposed replacement. But despite finishing in the Top 10 in virtually every quarterbacking category, and leading the NFL’s fifth-highest scoring offense in tandem with an unstoppable LaDainian Tomlinson at running back, the Chargers would drop their final two games and finish 9-7, missing the Wild Card by two games. Brees would also suffer a shoulder injury on the last play of the season, damaging his attractiveness as he pursued a new contract. After the season, San Diego would offer him a five-year, $50 million incentive-laden deal. Instead, he went with an extra year at the same rate with the New Orleans Saints, packing his bags for The Crescent City.
The 2005 version of the Saints had gone 3-13 in quarterback Aaron Brooks’ final year with the team. After relieving Head Coach Jim Haslett of his duties, N.O. would not only bring in Brees for the 2006 season, but new Head Coach Sean Payton. Saints fans and ownership were hoping the two would click, but they couldn’t have possibly imagined the progression in just one year. The team would improve on scoring offense from 31st to 5th, also improving on scoring defense from 28th to 13th. Brees would lead the NFL in passing yards with 4,418, and finish third in TD passes (26) and QB rating (96.2).
The 10-6 Saints made the postseason, hosting Jeff Garcia (filling in for an injured Donovan McNabb) and the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional Round. Garcia played well, but Brees was better in throwing for 243 yards and a touchdown. N.O. would hold on and win 27-24. Suddenly, Geaux Saints found themselves a win away from the Big Game. At chilly Soldier Field, their opposition was a Chicago Bears team that frequently induced opponents into turnovers. The Bears would jump out to a quick 16-0 start. But Brees would bookend halftime with TD passes to cut it to 16-14. Brees would be called for intentional grounding towards the end of the third quarter though, in his own end zone, resulting in a safety. The Saints would never recover from there as Da Bears scored three more touchdowns en route to a 39-14 NFC Championship victory. Brees would finish with 354 yards passing and two TDs, but also a crucial interception while losing a fumble in addition to the safety taken.
Still, the Saints had come a long way in just one year. But with Super Bowl aspirations in 2007, the year would be a letdown for New Orleans. The team would go 7-9, unable to recover from an 0-4 start, even though Brees would finish second in the league with 4,423 yards passing and third with a 67.5% completion rate. More disappointment came in 2008 as the Saints won back-to-back games only once in a meh 8-8 year. And yet, Drew Brees was anything but meh. He became only the second passer in NFL history to exceed 5,000 yards in the air with 5,069 of them. His 34 TD passes were tied for the league best, ironically with Philip Rivers. He would also finish fourth with a 96.2 passer rating. But the Saints’ 26th-ranked defense likely cost their signal caller an MVP award.
Head Coach Sean Payton probably had just one more year to right the ship, or risk losing his job. Boy did he ever deliver. The Saints improved to 20th on defense, but more importantly, jumped to 13-3, the NFC’s best record. And if there was any one player to thank, it was Drew Brees. With a 70.6% completion rate, he would tie an NFL record set by Ken Anderson in 1982. He would also lead all quarterbacks with 34 TD passes and a 109.6 passer rating. Nawlins would roll over the Arizona Cardinals in the playoffs, 45-14, thanks to Brees’ 247 yards passing, three TDs, and no turnovers. But the following week, the Saints would be locked in mortal combat with a resurrected Brett Favre, punishing runner Adrian Peterson, and the rest of the Minnesota Vikings for a Super Bowl berth. The game would head to overtime tied at 28. But after winning the coin toss, aided by Vikings penalties, and winning three replay challenges, Brees and the Saints would get to the Minnesota 22. Kicker Garrett Hartley would sink a 40-yarder to send New Orleans to their first ever Super Bowl, 31-28. Brees finished with 197 yards passing, three TDs, and no turnovers. The NFL would change its overtime rules two years later to prohibit a field goal on the first drive of OT from winning the game.
The New Orleans Saints came into Super Bowl XLIV as underdogs to another dome team, the Indianapolis Colts. Go figure that the game would be held outdoors in Miami. Brees’ counterpart on the Colts was Peyton Manning, the man who had beaten the Saints’ QB for MVP the past two years. The Colts looked tough to beat as they wrapped up the first quarter with a 10-0 lead. But Brees and the Saints chipped away, cutting the deficit to 10-6 at the Half, then 17-16 after three quarters. With just over 10:30 to play, Brees would lead the Saints on a nine-play, 59-yard drive, going 7-for-7 for 44 yards, and culminating in a 2-yard TD pass to tight end Jeremy Shockey. Brees would hit Lance Moore on the two-point conversion (initially called incomplete, then overturned), to put the Saints up 24-17 with 5:30 to play. On the next drive, with Indy driving into N.O. territory, Manning would throw a pick-six to put the Saints up 31-17. The next snap Drew Brees would take, just a few minutes later, would be a knee-drop in triumph. The all-time single-season leader in passing yards and completion percentage was now a Super Bowl champion.
Winning a Super Bowl is always a tough act to follow. The Saints tried their best in 2010, going 11-5, resulting in a Wild Card berth. Brees was tops in the league in completion percentage (68.1%), tied for second in TD passes (33), and third in passing yards (4,620), although he threw the second-most interceptions with 22. Visiting a 7-9 Seattle team that had managed to win a pathetic NFC West, the Saints defense would be caught off-guard, surrendering four TD passes to Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck with 12 minutes still left in the third quarter. The Saints could not catch up, falling 41-36 in a shocker. Brees would do his best, throwing an insane 60 passes for 404 yards, two TDs, and no turnovers in the loss.
New Orleans returned to dominance in 2011 with a 13-3 record. Brees would set the all-time single-season pass efficiency record with a 71.2% completion rate. He would be one of three players (the others being Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford) to exceed 5,000 yards passing in 2011, but Brees’ 5,476 was the most and a new single-season NFL record. In addition, he would throw an NFL-best 46 TD passes. All that culminated in… Aaron Rodgers winning NFL MVP for the 15-1 Green Bay Packers. In the Wild Card Round, the Saints would turn a 14-10 halftime deficit to Detroit into a 45-28 runaway win. Brees would throw for a monstrous 466 yards and three TDs. But in the Divisional Round, the Saints would fall behind 17-0 to a 49ers team quarterbacked by Alex Smith. But Brees would lead the Saints on a furious comeback, putting them ahead 32-29 on a 66-yard TD pass to Jimmy Graham, followed by a two-point conversion. But Alex Smith would lead the Niners on a seemingly impossible seven-play 85-yard touchdown drive with seconds left to clinch a stunning victory, 36-32, ending the Saints’ season in epic fashion.
Drew Brees would again lead the NFL with 5,177 passing yards in 2012, as well as 43 TD passes (although throwing 19 picks). But Who Dat? crumbled to 31st in points allowed, and finished 7-9, struggling without Head Coach Sean Payton who was suspended for “Bountygate”. Hoping to get back to title contention in 2013, and with Sean Payton back, the Saints improved to 11-5. For the third straight year, New Orleans’ signal caller eclipsed 5,000 yards passing with 5,162, trailing only Peyton Manning’s 5,477 (which broke Brees’ single-season NFL record by one yard). Brees would also finish second in completion rate (68.6%) and touchdown passes (39).
The Saints would visit the Philadelphia Eagles, quarterbacked by second-year starter Nick Foles, in the Wild Card Round. New Orleans would build a 20-7 lead with four minutes left in the third quarter, but it slipped away as the Eagles went up 24-23 with just under five minutes to play. But Brees and Saints running backs Mark Ingram and Khiry Robinson would trot up the field, milking the clock, resulting in a 32-yard field goal as time expired for a 26-24 victory. But the Saints would fall behind early against second-year quarterback Russell Wilson in the NFC Championship in Seattle, 16-0, and never really get back into the game. Brees was solid, throwing for 309 yards, a touchdown, and no turnovers. But eventual Super Bowl champs Seattle would win 23-15.
The 2014-2016 seasons would see New Orleans mired in mediocrity as the defense would finish in the bottom five in the league in scoring every year. The result was three consecutive 7-9 seasons. Unfortunately, it wasted three years in which Drew Brees led the league in passing yards. He would go for 4,952 in ’14, then 4,870 in ’15, and 5,208 in ’16. The numbers showed that Brees still had a lot left in the tank, but at 38 years old, the question was just how much exactly. Apparently, a lot. He again led the NFL with a 72.0% completion percentage and 8.1 yards per pass attempt in 2017. His 103.9 passer rating was second in the league and trailed the leader, Alex Smith, by less than a point. But importantly for the team, the defense catapulted to 10th in points allowed, helping the Saints win the NFC South at 11-5.
Hosting division rivals Carolina in the Wild Card Round, and the always-dangerous Cam Newton, the Saints would manage to pull ahead and keep a distance, holding onto a 31-26 lead with four minutes left for the win. Their quarterback was great as always, with 376 yards passing, two TDs, and one INT. Then came a classic in Minneapolis. Down 17-0 with just over a minute left in the third quarter, a Saints deficit would turn into a shootout. New Orleans would score thrice, and with three minutes to play, found themselves now up 21-20. Then, with 90 seconds to play, Vikings kicker Kai Forbath would boot a 53-yarder to go up 23-21. But Brees would take N.O. 50 yards in one minute, and Saints kicker Wil Lutz nailed a 43-yarder to put the game away. That is, until this happened. Minnesota quarterback Case Keenum hit Stefon Diggs for a 61-yard touchdown as time expired and the Vikings would shock the Saints 29-24. One week later, Minnesota would fall to eventual Super Bowl Champs Philadelphia.
It seemed like it couldn’t get any worse for the New Orleans Saints than a last-second Hail Mary. And so, they aimed to come back stronger in 2018. They did, going 13-3 and winning a tiebreak over the L.A. Rams for the top seed in the NFC. Again, the instigator was Drew Brees, who broke his own single-season NFL record with a 74.4% completion rate. He would throw for 3,992 yards and 32 touchdowns in 15 games, with a league-best 115.7 passer rating. And as they had so many times during the Drew Brees era, the Saints took out the Eagles in the playoffs, despite falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter. In the 20-14 win, Brees would throw for 301 yards, two TDs, and one pick.
One week later, in the battle between the two best NFC teams, the Saints and Rams battled tightly for four quarters with a Super Bowl berth on the line. New Orleans would take an early 13-0 lead, but the Rams would continue to chip away. Tied at 20, the Saints found themselves deep in Rams territory, and on the cusp of running out the clock for a game-ending chip shot. Instead, a seemingly obvious pass interference call did not result in a flag. The Saints got their three points, but it left 100 ticks on the clock. It was enough time for QB Jared Goff and the Rams to go 45 yards and send it to overtime on a 48-yard field goal. In OT, Brees was intercepted within the first minute. In four plays, Los Angeles would get to the N.O. 39. Kicker Greg “The Leg” Zuerlein would split the uprights on a huge 57-yarder to send the Rams to the Super Bowl, in controversial fashion, 26-23. Drew Brees finished with 249 yards passing, two TDs, and the ill-timed interception.
The 2019 season saw continued excellence from Drew Brees, despite a crucial setback. Early in Week 2, against the L.A. Rams, the Saints’ long-time leader was taken out of the game with a thumb injury. It was a serious one that would take him out for several weeks due to surgery. Teddy Bridgewater was excellent in relief though, getting New Orleans to 6-1 prior to Brees’ return. When Brees came back, he was masterful, but perhaps never moreso than in Week 15. With the Saints battling for the NFC’s top seed, and the visiting Indianapolis Colts fighting for their playoff lives, Brees would throw a seemingly insignificant incompletion in the first minute of the second quarter. By the time the clock struck zero in N.O.’s 34-7 win, Brees had thrown 30 passes on the evening… and the incompletion would be his only one. His 96.7% single-game completion rate was a new NFL record.
Brees would end up leading NFL passers in completion percentage (74.3%) in 2019, narrowly falling short of his single-season NFL record of 74.4% just one year prior. He also finished second in passer rating (116.3), and in the Top 5 in both TDs per attempt and fewest INTs per attempt. And after all that, the Wild Card Round would be a huge disappointment for the Super Bowl contenders. While Brees was an efficient 26-for-33 for 208 yards and a touchdown, he also turned the ball over twice in a 26-20 defeat to the visiting Minnesota Vikings.
Equal parts gratifying and unfulfilling, 2020 was the final season of Drew Brees’ career. On the one hand he won nine of 12 starts and finished second among QBs in completion rate (70.5%). On the other hand, he missed four games with broken ribs and a collapsed lung. The first round of the postseason, was vintage Brees as he went for 265 passing yards and two TDs, without a turnover, in a 21-9 win over the Bears. But Brees was humbled by a dynamic Tampa Bay defense just one week later. Picked off three times, and held to just 134 yards passing and a lone TD, New Orleans fell to Tom Brady and the eventual Super Bowl champs, 30-20. An unceremonious finale to a magnificent career.
At the time of Brees’ retirement, only eight players in NFL history had thrown for 5,000 yards in a season. Seven of them had done it only once. Drew Brees did it five times. He led the NFL in passing yardage seven times, completion percentage six times, touchdown passes four times, and passer rating twice. He won a Super Bowl as well as that game’s MVP award, made the postseason ten times, and has a career 172-114 regular season record as starter. At the end of the 2020 season, he was the all-time career leader in the NFL in passing yards. Oh, and he never won league MVP. Well, can’t win ‘em all, right? For a guy who was undervalued coming out of college, tossed aside in San Diego, and didn’t see the playoffs during three of the best years of his career (from 2014-2016 due to poor defenses), he’s had a career that every quarterback would be in awe of. Maybe Drew Brees was never the best quarterback in the game on any given season, but you could make a very good argument that he is the best quarterback ever to play the game period.
Chart
| Season | W-L% | Tot Y/G | Tot TD/G | Tot TO/G | Y/C/Y/A | Cmp % | TD% | Int% |
| Reg Season | 0.057 | 0.082 | 0.135 | 0.169 | 0.015 | 0.103 | 0.106 | 0.072 |
| Playoffs | 0.000 | 0.086 | 0.088 | -0.010 | -0.011 | 0.091 | 0.066 | 0.102 |
Longevity Bonus = 2.8 Title Bonus = 1.0
Index Score = 8.303 (average QB = 0.0)
Deviation Rank (out of 155)
| Season | W-L% | Tot Y/G | Tot TD/G | Tot TO/G | Y/C/Y/A | Cmp % | TD% | Int% |
| Reg Season | 42nd | 7th | 3rd | 3rd | 71st | 12th | 13th | 30th |
| Playoffs | T-47th | 17th | 29th | 94th | 86th | 24th | 34th | 36th |
Why is he on the Top 10 list?
Drew Brees was statistically brilliant throughout his career. Of all eight categories, the only regular season category in which he falls outside the Top 50 is average of yards/completion + yards/attempt (#71). Even then he’s still perfectly average in that regard. In the regular season, he’s in the Top 10 in terms of deviation in three categories: fewest turnovers per game (#3), total touchdowns per game (#4), and total yards per game (#7). He finishes just outside the Top 10 in completion percentage (#12) and touchdowns per pass attempt (#13).
In the playoffs, he’s a Top 40 performer in five of eight categories: total yards per game (#17), completion percentage (#24), total touchdowns per game (#29), interception rate (#36), and touchdowns per pass attempt (#34). He gets a nice 2.8-point bonus for serving as his teams’ primary starter for 19 seasons. He also gets an additional bonus point for winning Super Bowl XLIV.
The Quarterback Project 