Where is Drew's head at? It's not all physical. (1 Viewer)

[Saint Floyd]

Jesus of Nazareth... it’s been TWO GAMES.

In one, we beat an NFC contender without any home field advantage.

In another, we lost a west coast game against an opponent that deserves credit for a solid game plan and execution. We also missed our star WR and starting DE.

Last season, we had very similar freak outs. Maybe it’s warranted this time. Maybe not. Either way, let’s get a sample size larger than 1/8 of the season prior to drawing broad conclusions.

 

[saintszks]

*Brees has one bad game:

“BLM has really affected his game. How will he every live this down? It seems like the politics is really getting to his head”

lol calm down. He’s about to be 42. That’s all lol.

 

[SystemShock]

Drew has two issues he will not mentally get over. Number one, he had retired in his mind. He checked out. He was done. He then changed his mind. Second, the attack he received by his own teammates after making his statements about what the flag meant to him, his patriotism. He backed down and he now has been emasculated. These two psychological issues have completely destroyed his confidence. He is done. This is two straight games of crappy play in a row. This offseason ended his career.

You really think Brees is THAT soft?

 

[saintsfan78]

The fact all of his teammates called him out publically over his flag stance (which he has had for years) is sooooo overlooked. A guy that thrives on trust and respect had every skill position player on his offense come out against him one way or another. Of course his head is not where it needs to be.

bad decision not to retire at that time. he didnt need this season. He can still retire and I hope he does to save more of his self-esteem. He doesnt need the saints, move to Austin and spend more time with that great family.

 

[silverbullet]

I don't think Brees is soft. I think he's a victim of human nature. It's a lot easier to tune out noise when you're rocking and rolling. He's never ever faced this kind of pressure before.

Even in the 8-8, 7-9 years, no one thought it was his fault.

I think my thread is reactionary and paints a worst case scenario. I think, as usual, the truth is in the middle. Brees is not as bad as he's looked and he's not as good as this team needs him to be.

I think taking a wait and see approach for two more weeks is probably best. If get dismantled by Green Bay and whoever we play after, the sky is falling.

Finally, the D does not get a pass at all. They were terrible. Hard to get in a rhythm when you only get 7 possessions.

 

[efil4stnias]

I really, really, really don't want this to be true.

But I really, really, really am afraid that it might be.

Of course, it is way too early to assert this as absolutely true, especially given this team's history of slow starts but this post sets out exactly my state of mind on the issue. I always felt that we'd have to sacrifice a year to honor Brees' legacy (rather than transition immediately when he faltered) and this might be it. I just hope it's not your nightmare scenario.

As i said on another thread, if SP admiration and respect for Drew allows him to have a "final lap" season, let us know. Temper expectations. Because i FULLY expected to see 2018/19 Drew.

What we are seeing now? isnt even close to that. His body is simply not responding to signals and his strength has diminished.

I sent a "mia culpa" pm to blackadder as we had gone back n forth on this for about 3 years now. I staunchly defended Drew.

I can tell you with 100% certainty now that the Saints KNEW about this back in 2017. They already saw the signs of decline.

I just dont think they thought 2020 Drew would be this bad.

These last 2 games were abysmal from his standards. And if his confidence is broken, well, he and SP need to come to terms. He deserves to go out on top. Not middle of the pack. And he owes as much to his teammates.

I suspect Drew is struggling hard right now with thoughts of his ability/play and hindsight. And he doesnt deserve to have to deal with that. He did EVERYHTING AND MORE a QB could for an organization AND city. He owes us NOTHING. I hope he understands that.

 

[Mississippi Saints Fan]

Quotes from Brees' press conference today.

"I feel good, borderline great"

"I think we have always been one of the best teams in the league, probably in history, at the precision of the passing game, and I think we are on our way to being back there again very soon".

Take it as you will. Just thought I'd share his thoughts.

 

[SweetT]

A part of the problem is Drew gets real antsy some times and tries to do too much. That perfectionist stuff eats at him. At this point in his career, he needs to just calm his nerves and rely more on his teammates instead of trying to do too much. He shouldn’t want to “let it loose” until he lets loose himself.

 

[SystemShock]

Quotes from Brees' press conference today.

"I feel good, borderline great"

"I think we have always been one of the best teams in the league, probably in history, at the precision of the passing game, and I think we are on our way to being back there again very soon".

Take it as you will. Just thought I'd share his thoughts.

Translation: " I'm going to lick my fingers like tootsie pops".

 

[KaYoTiiC]

The fact that it’s his last season is probably the biggest problem. Not wanting to make mistakes and forcing idiotic plays like the dump pass he’s famous for over and over and over again.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Remember when a lot of us were complaining about how Teddy Two gloves never throw so it deep, check down teddy?

I mean, I love Drew, but I see no difference

Which is weird because DB has been doing he exact same thing for years and many of the members here turned a blind eye to that fact.

 

[RiverRat]

Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I don’t think Drew has been all that off. I can recall 2 passes that were actually off target, and both came against the raiders. One was the interception and the other was high to a wide open Cook. Most of the incompletions have been drops or tightly contested.

Saying this has to do with him being a decent human and admitting fault about his comments is about as dumb as saying Kamara’s last season was down because he “missed Ingram.” These guys are professionals and I really think this whole situation made them respect Drew a lot more.

I think we’re seeing the effects of a variable offseason, no preseason, and new faces in the receiver room. MT going down early in the season hurts us because Drew and the new guys don’t have the chemistry that is expected to come as the season progresses. If we’re lucky, this will expedite the process.

The offensive line historically struggles the first few weeks. Lots of penalties, blown assignments in the run game, and allowing pressures. By the end of the season, they’ll be back to being top 3.

We haven’t gone 2-0 in a very long time, so again if we look at history, we were due for an egg laying. I wouldn’t be surprised to see our penalties way down and our offensive numbers look nice against the packers.

I’ve felt like Drew has been attempting a few deep balls, but had only connected on one because guys just aren’t open.

 

[Saintamaniac]

You've really got to wonder at this point if he's regretting coming back.

We've all talked endlessly about his physical limitations but I'm just as concerned about where his head is.

It's been widely documented that Brees was planning to retire after last season. I've heard it said that as a pro athlete, once your first thought is that you want to retire, you're mentally checked out.

I think Brees came back for a few reasons. One last run to win a SB. To continue to maintain his records vs Brady. I do wonder if Brees would have retired if Brady did.

But since his decision to come back, the world has gone to complete crap.

First of all, there was no offseason workouts, which you know for a perfectionist like Brees hurt.

Then you have him raked over the coals by his teammates. That had to hurt and you wonder, although they say publicly, that everything is fine, how they all really feel. And did it do permanent damage to his status as leader of the team? Normally, I would say no because he was the best player on the team. He's clearly not anymore. It's harder to overlook resentments when you're not performing also.

Unjustly, imo, there is a significant portion of fans who are angry at him for "bending the knee" to SJWs. So you have one segment of fans mad because of what he said and another mad because he changed his opinion. He can't win.

And I really doubt he wanted his swan song to be in front of an empty stadium. Even if things were going well, that's pretty anticlimactic for a HOF career.

Finally, I worry the criticism is getting to him. He has a vacant look in his eyes and his comments about "air yards" clearly show he's reading the critiques about him not being able to get the ball down field. We already knew this based on his specialized arm workout in the offseason.

I truly hope these first two games are an aberration. My gut tells me they aren't.

Best case scenario, he can at least get back to last year's form. It's not good enough to go deep in the playoffs but he can still go out with his head held high.

My nightmare scenario is that we limp to 8-8 and he looks bad the whole way.

Brees came back from an injury that no one thought he'd play football again. Brees has never shown that he was a weak-will person and I've never mistaken him from being one. The stuff that went on in the offseason has nothing to do with his on-field play. Nothing that I've seen from him during his time in NOLA indicates that he would let anything like that impact his play on the field. Nothing.

The only things that have ever impacted Brees' on field performance has been injury. I'm not saying he's injured, I'm saying that I disagree with all the rampant speculation that all of a sudden, Brees' mental makeup changed in a matter of 3 months because he had a public disagreement with his teammates. Just because some fans now hate players they've cheered for because those players have a different political view than them doesn't mean that a player who has to trust his safety with those very same players feels the same way.

Brees came back for one reason and one reason only; Brees could not live with Tom Brady taking his team to the big dance and because of that, Brees may be losing the battle to the undefeated foe; old age. Brees isn't out there trying to hand the ball off to a running back in an empty set. Brees isn't throwing an out route pass on a go route pattern. Brees isn't audibling into a middle run with the line stacked. Brees is throwing passes into the ground and missing wide open receivers. That's not mental. That's physical.

Players have won championships with other players they hate. Brees' current struggles have nothing to do with what happened in the offseason. If people think it does then those people don't know jack about team sports and ultra competitive athletes, IMO of course.

 

[SaintsSpringBayou]

We're making excuses for probably the best QB to ever play the game. Ever. Someone who thrives on perfection, competition, and pushing himself. The best we can do is say well, it's because of Covid or because some of his teammates called him out on a tone deaf Q&A. That's pathetic on our part.

The weird offseason can hinder a lot of things, like knowing schemes, routes, and getting timing down - what we're seeing is confusion, indecision, and lacking physical ability, that's not because of that. He has access to gyms, teammates, coaches, etc at an elite level. His political opinion is a non-issue. Everyone takes the torches out for Jenkins, but Jenkins has nothing to do with Drew's ability to throw a ball and from what I've read they buried it - like professionals usually do.

Frankly, what we're seeing is a lot of things that all start from Drew himself, nothing else. It's age and ego. Age has caught up to his ability. Ego won't let it go. He's not the best QB on this team. Not right now.

 

[MV2]

Drew didn't back down from his statements imo. He simply acknowledged that he finally realized that the protests had nothing to do with the flag or anybody's love for this country. It was and is still about the injustice faced by blacks in America.

That being said, his character has never been called into question and now it is. I'm sure that bothers him til this day. But he's too smart to answer that question the way he did at that moment. Bad move by him.

On the field, his play is obviously suffering and it seems just as much mental as it is physical. His decision making seems off and the body is following the mind.