Give Drew credit for admitting the deep throws have been missing.

demented said
You can't execute ball control offense against a top 10 defense without being able to convincingly throw a deep ball. If the other team can squeeze down and in then your ability to dink and dunk goes away. I completely agree that dominating a team by controlling the ball is a much better tactic than scoring quick, but you still need to be able to go over the top or your scheme will fall apart. You can judge a teams respect for your outside game by charting the number of snaps they take in cover 2, 1, 0. If the other team is in cover 1 as their base then you're getting no respect.

I agree that it was Drew's time to retire. The Covid year of 2020 was a sad ending to his career for more reasons than the playoff loss to the Bucs.
Starting the season Drew said that he felt better (physically) than he had in years. He convinced the coaching staff that he was ready to take the Saints deep into a playoff run. Things almost worked out as planned. We'll never know if we might have gotten the #1 Seed if Brees doesn't get busted up during the season and missed some games, nor do we know if benching him would have made for a more successful season.

I don't know how true the rumor is about how we could have suited up Tom Brady in the black & gold for 2020, but I do believe the Saints organization felt that we could get the job done with Drew at the helm and was happy that we were in position to do just that despite the setbacks to Drew and the offense.

Sean Payton once said that winning the Superbowl isn't easy and that a lot of things have to go right to accomplish that feat. With all of our issues (which all teams have every year) our team had a great run and came up a few plays short of getting to the NFC Championship game with another Superbowl on the line. We didn't get it done and Tampa Bay did. We can only hope that our new 'Jameis-led' offense will have better success and we will maintain the level of dominance we've enjoyed for most of Sean's tenure as our head coach. Personally I believe our success has as much to do with our staff as it does with our players. But I wouldn't have traded the thrill of having #9 in a Saints jersey for most of that time.

But like most folks here, I'm ready for the new start and hope that we will see many more successful seasons in the years ahead!