Saints life after Brees (1 Viewer)

[MSGulfCoastWhoDat]

I get it, it’s painful to think but I found a nugget from the web that made a lot of sense.

Brees is having a very similar decline to the one Peyton Manning had at the end of 2014.

Back in 2014, Manning and the Broncos started out on fire. He led the league in passing yards and TDs and was right there in the MVP conversation. Then in week 12, Denver went to St Louis and were held to 7 points and something was off. They never looked the same again. Aaron Rodgers ran away with the MVP, but Manning's end of the year stats were great enough that he nearly had 5,000 yards and on paper, it looks like a truly monster season until you split it like this.

When Manning declined was when Denver transitioned from an offensive juggernaut (remember, they broke all those records in 2013) to suddenly, relying on their defense to do the heavy lifting, get turnovers and hold down the fort. They limped into the playoffs and lost the divisional round to the Colts in a game where their defense truly played lights out and was doing everything to try and bail out a struggling offense. They ultimately lost cause the offense couldn't convert drives into points when they got down the field.

Sound familiar? That was our story last year. The defense kept us alive in every game after Thanksgiving. They pretty much moved heaven and earth for us to beat the Steelers around Christmas. Remember when the offense needed a PI call on Joe Haden to finally get that TD and win it? The defense got 4th down stops, turnovers and ultimately sealed the game.

In the playoffs, we almost went out like that Denver team - offense put up stats after struggling but couldn't stop shooting themselves in the foot with penalties and screw ups to really put an end to that game. Defense held Philly to less than 90 yards and in the end, got a lucky turnover and prevented us from going one and done.

Against the Rams, everyone focused on the non-call and forgot that we really did not play a good game. Of the 4 teams in the conference title games, we had the worst offensive numbers. Brees also did not play good that day. The long bomb to Ginn was almost intercepted. The infamous non-call play, WOULD'VE been an interception if the corner had been watching the ball instead of trying to murder Tommy Lee Lewis like a moron. That would've been an INT and possibly pick six with all that room to run. The defense tried really hard, but we let the Rams linger around long enough to steal it.

Five Thirty Eight's writers have been saying this for many months now, that Brees has declined. That is the only reason they put Matt Ryan ahead of him in their NFC South quarterback rating. Neil Paine in group chat articles on there brought up how Brees could come back and still declining after his injury, and I think he had a point.

I guess I feel like a guy who’s long time dog companion is laying in the bed whimpering of old age and ready to be put down. It’s sad, but Sean Payton is young enough to do it again with a new QB after we win it all this year and Brees retires.
Is Teddy our guy next year or do we go for a tank and shoot for Trevor Lawrence?

 

[BELOWSEALEVEL]

Trevor needs to stay in school.

 

[Crescentcity93]

I get it, it’s painful to think but I found a nugget from the web that made a lot of sense.

I guess I feel like a guy who’s long time dog companion is laying in the bed whimpering of old age and ready to be put down. It’s sad, but Sean Payton is young enough to do it again with a new QB after we win it all this year and Brees retires.
Is Teddy our guy next year or do we go for a tank and shoot for Trevor Lawrence?

He went for 400 yards and 3 TDs a game ago and is healing from an injury that usually takes months. Let’s pump the brakes a bit.

 

[Saints nTx]

He went for 400 yards and 3 TDs a game ago and is healing from an injury that usually takes months. Let’s pump the brakes a bit.

What do you mean pump your brakes he's not getting any younger I for one hope we do when the Super Bowl and he retire so we can move on and get a Young quarterback to go without young defense how young offense before everyone become free agents and leave

 

[tonythesaint]

I get it, it’s painful to think but I found a nugget from the web that made a lot of sense.

I guess I feel like a guy who’s long time dog companion is laying in the bed whimpering of old age and ready to be put down. It’s sad, but Sean Payton is young enough to do it again with a new QB after we win it all this year and Brees retires.
Is Teddy our guy next year or do we go for a tank and shoot for Trevor Lawrence?

Peyton Manning in 2014 had 39TDs and 15INTs, then in 2015 in 9 games he had 9TDs and 17INTs before his season ended. In other words his career completely fell off a cliff. Peyton relied more on arm strength than accuracy. This fact alone is why even when you see a decline in Brees's play it will look nothing like what happened to Manning. Brees is still better than over half of the YOUNG starting QBs in the NFL, so why are you so quick to run him off?

 

[26ISTHEMAN]

Trevor needs to stay in school.

I think he has to stay in school. He's only a sophmore.

 

[JvilleJoe]

You can say what you want about Drew, but you can't lay the blame on the Atlanta loss on him. The guy absolutely had nobody who could even catch a cold with the exception of Thomas and Cook. Dropped passes, atrocious OL blocking and a defense that could not get off the field were the major causes of this pathetic loss. I might add that Coach Payton called a terrible game and for whatever reason just abandoned the run, even when Drew was getting slammed regularly on play action passes.

 

[Zack Lee]

so many threads the last few days and I keep thinking, "one game" you guys get all this from one game? Its not like we have had a ton of Drew to base decisions on this year at all. He has been just fine when he had an Oline.

 

[jbourque]

In before the worshipers at the Brees alter come to shoot this down.

 

[Zack Lee]

In before the worshipers at the Brees alter come to shoot this down.

remember a few years ago when we were off of 3 7-9 finishes and we extended Payton, how many people thought it was a bad move. Don't you wish those people had been in charge so we would not have had to suffer through this recent 31w-10l run he has had? Yea, me too.

I think Ill trust SP and Drew for a little while.

 

[Swimmer]

What do you mean pump your brakes he's not getting any younger I for one hope we do when the Super Bowl and he retire so we can move on and get a Young quarterback to go without young defense how young offense before everyone become free agents and leave

I know your view is very unpopular to the majority of us Who Dats. But I do respect you for beginning the conversation. Brees had no protection plus he couldn't step into the pocket because the turds were often pushing the center of our O-line backward. We all know that Brees is playing on borrowed time. Watching Brady, we often forget that elite 40 year old QBs are very very rare.

Brees is definitely not the Brees of 2009. In some ways, he has mentally improved. In other ways, arm strength and ability to scramble, Brees has digressed. I think we can win another SB with Brees. But the next 2-4 weeks will be telling. Was the falcons game just an anomaly? Or will we see a tired Brees like the end of last season. One thing I can guarantee, if Brees has to take many more brutal beatings like he did last week, he won't be very fresh at seasons end.

 

[MV2]

Any player over 40 is on the decline. That's just a part of it. Drew is still better than many and will retire a Saint when he wants to. It's a tough one because you want to do right by Drew, but if you have a better option for your long term future you have to take it.

We can't let Drew just keep lacing them up if he can't throw balls past 20-25 yards. Defenses will have too easy of a time stopping us when you can't threaten deep. We have not had a deep ball game in many years and as the games get more important teams will lock MT & Kamara down. Secondaries don't have to worry about deeper passes anymore so they can line up 20 yards off the ball and just play what's in front of them.

I know all the negative reactions that will come from this post because God forbid anybody say anything about Drew, but there comes a point when you gotta stop being a homer and take off the rose colored glasses. He's an old QB who doesn't have a whole lot of juice left in his arm by NFL standards. Mentally, I'm sure he's sharp as ever. But father time is undefeated.

 

[sammymvpknight]

Peyton Manning in 2014 had 39TDs and 15INTs, then in 2015 in 9 games he had 9TDs and 17INTs before his season ended. In other words his career completely fell off a cliff. Peyton relied more on arm strength than accuracy. This fact alone is why even when you see a decline in Brees's play it will look nothing like what happened to Manning. Brees is still better than over half of the YOUNG starting QBs in the NFL, so why are you so quick to run him off?

peytons decline clearly occurred on the second half of 2014. He still put up great overall stats because the first half of that season was great. But it’s not incredibly relevant to Brees at this point. Even great QBs are allowed to have a clunker now and again (especially when the rest of their team is play awful). Brees’s endis coming soon but I base that on historical trends more than Brees’s play this season.

 

[crosswatt]

In before the worshipers at the Brees alter come to shoot this down.

No one has to shoot it down. It's an inaccurate representation of a fallacious argument.

The infamous non-call play, WOULD'VE been an interception if the corner had been watching the ball instead of trying to murder Tommy Lee Lewis like a moron. That would've been an INT and possibly pick six with all that room to run.

That's not even close to being correct. TLL had the angle and the spacing and was the only person with any shot at the ball. Nickell Robey-Coleman literally had no play on the ball, and admitted as much. The whole excerpt is just not a valid observance on any level.

 

[SaintStephen1]

Drew sees the CB with his back to the ball. He knew he was putting Coleman in a position to just watch a catch or commit the penalty, just like he used to do with LBs trying to keep up with Graham up the seam.