If you want to really help Drew Brees, run Deuce McAllister and Pierre Thomas the way Deuce was used when he had over 1600 rushing yards. Put Reggie in the slot. Do away with the trickery versus fast defenses, like the ones who use a version of Tampa Cover 2 and the super athletic types like Baltimore. In other words, get physical in the running game from the jump. You establish the LOS and do this, THEN Brees will have an easy day, THEN the misdirection and trickery and cute plays will work. I think Payton was forced to realize this in the abscence of Deuce and Reggie last year, as well as the 0-4 start becuase of a failure to do this as well as why we lost to Chicago, Indy, and Tampa who all have practically the same defensive philosphy, and losses to teams like Carolina and Washington and Tennessee who were just more physical.
Drew is great at getting rid of the ball quickly, and those short high percentage passes will open up both the run and deep ball against half of the league. But when you play teams that are either quick or physical, they either put a stop to the short game with speed or physical pressure. We counterd Jacksonville's defense beautifully, but that is now on tape and will not happen the same way again.
Drew is a great QB. Sure, he could use another sure WR and Gateslike TE, but we will still face the same problems versus the same kind of teams unless our coach pulls his head out of his butt and decides to cut the mickey mouse cute stuff and pound the rock. I don't care how much improvement we make on defense or what talented RB or WR we bring in, between our offensive line and offensive philosophy, we NEED to be able to do this when the situation arises, and we need to commit to doing it. Some games will have to be played that way from whistle to whistle, others it will only be needed when preserving a lead. Have that, and Brees will be unstoppable, even if his only legit WR is Colston.