Is Drew Brees' number " Officially retired" by the team ???.........

SAINTSFAN said
The only numbers officially retired were #81 (Atkins) and #31 (Taylor) but those have since been placed back into use. #9 and #8 are not given out by the staff, but are not retired.

I never understood why they retired Atkins and Taylor. They are HOFers, but they spent less than four seasons with the franchise.