by Jeff Duncan
And while Brady (Rob Gronkowski, Randy Moss) and Manning (Marshall Faulk, Marvin Harrison) each benefited from Hall of Fame–worthy teammates, Brees might be the only Saint in the Payton era to earn that distinction. Before Mike Thomas and Alvin Kamara joined the team, the Saints managed to rank among the league leaders annually in total offense and scoring offense with just one Pro Bowl player in the perimeter corps (Jimmy Graham in 2011).
“People can say and think whatever they want,” Strief said. “Put that guy [Brees] in any system in the NFL, and he’s going to excel…Brady is the same way. They’re the same person. To claim that he is a product of the system because we throw the ball a lot and he gets a lot of yards is preposterous. He is the system. The stuff that we are running is the same stuff that other teams are running. We are not running magical plays. We have a quarterback that on the last step of his drop already knows where the ball needs to go and when, and can put it in a window twice the size of a football. That is the system.”
Quarterback coach Trent Dilfer went so far as to call Brees a “transformational” player at the quarterback position. While Fran Tarkenton and Doug Flutie enjoyed successful careers before him, Brees’ spectacular career has changed the way coaches and front office executives view quarterbacks. He paved the way for a generation of 6’0”-and-under passers to become franchise quarterbacks. Without Brees’ success, Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray might have suffered the same fate as Charlie Ward, who was forced to pursue a professional basketball career in the NBA because of the NFL’s skepticism of a quarterback with his size and playing style when he came out of Florida State in 1994.
“Drew changed the narrative from quarterbacking is about being big to quarterbacking is about making everyone around you better, completing the ball,” Dilfer said on the MMQB podcast with Albert Breer in 2019.
Before Brees, Dilfer said, many NFL coaches, scouts, and personnel executives subscribed to the theory that size mattered for quarterbacks. To succeed at the game’s most important position, quarterbacks had to be big and strong, with a great arm and able to throw the deep out pattern.
“Drew changed that,” said Dilfer, who won a Super Bowl ring as the starting quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens and now trains elite quarterback prospects at Nike’s prestigious Elite 11 camps. “He showed that you could throw it earlier, you didn’t have to throw it harder. It wasn’t about seeing over everyone, it was about seeing through passing lanes. It was about being a surgeon not a butcher. He literally looks at every little detail, every minuscule aspect of quarterbacking and perfects it.”
Dilfer uses highlights of Brees’ work as a teaching tape at his camps. Brees’ mastery of the position’s fundamentals makes him the perfect model for young players.
“Drew is really the first 6-foot surgeon, the first guy that meticulously took you apart with how he played the position and made you bleed out by a thousand cuts,” Dilfer said. “He made your offense more robust because you do more things than just turn your back to the line of scrimmage and rip heaters down the field.… I think Drew will forever be in that conversation as one of the greatest quarterbacks that’s ever played the game when you look at quarterbacking holistically. Quarterbacking is making your team better, production, the leadership, impact on your franchise, the legacy on players that came after him that tried to be just like him.”
Tom House works with half the starting quarterbacks in the NFL and has coached scores of others over the years. Brees, he said, competes and learns on a different level than any quarterback he’s ever trained, including Brady. Brees routinely grades in the top percentile on the testing House and his staff perform during offseason training workouts at the 3DQB facility in Huntington Beach, California.
“What Drew does, he makes it look easy, but it’s not,” House said. “The window is that big and he hits it. Drew will have a spectacular play or two, but he’s not a spectacular quarterback. He’s just the best fucker who’s ever thrown a football.”
Pro Football Reference’s approximate value metric might be the best argument for how grossly underrated Brees has been in his career. The statistic attempts to rank NFL players’ overall value across positions and eras by measuring their production, tenure, and honors in each season that they played. Entering the 2020 season, Brees ranked as the third-best player in NFL history, trailing only Manning and Brady. He is the only offensive player in the Top 15 who has not won MVP honors.
“It’s so frustrating to me,” said Mike Neu, the former Saints quarterbacks coach and now head coach at Ball State University. “For whatever reason, he never gets enough respect. There’s no question that he has had an impact on all of sports, not just football and not just the quarterback position. He’s just a machine.”
The same could be said for the Saints offense. They’ve rewritten the club and NFL record books and, by any statistical measure, deserve to be mentioned with the greatest offensive juggernauts in league lore, alongside the Rams’ Greatest Show on Turf, the Air Coryell Chargers, the Brady-Belichick Patriots, and the Walsh-Montana 49ers.
Since Brees and Payton joined forces, the Saints have gained more yards (89,642) than any offense in the NFL. In fact, no other team in NFL history has gained as many yards during a 14-year span, according to Elias Sports Bureau. In that time, they’ve allowed the fewest sacks (339), converted the highest percentage of third downs (46.3), and passed for the most yards (290.8 average per game), while ranking second only to the Patriots in points scored (27.9 ppg) and first downs gained (5,083). From 2006 to 2019, the Saints finished among the top 10 in Football Outsiders’ offensive efficiency ratings an astonishing 13 times.
Along the way, they have authored some of the most dominant offensive performances in league history. The Payton-Brees Saints have handed NFL bluebloods like the New York Giants, New England Patriots, and Philadelphia Eagles some of the worst defeats in the history of their respective franchises.
What’s more, the tandem has brought unprecedented stability and success to the once-moribund Saints organization. In the 39 seasons before Brees and Payton arrived, 28 men started at quarterback for the Saints under 13 head coaches. Those quarterbacks combined to post a 237–352–5 record, a winning percentage of 40.3. In that span, the Saints made 43 appearances on national television and won two division titles and one playoff game. In the first 14 years of the Payton-Brees tenure, the Saints have gone 138–84, a 62.1 winning percentage. Their winning percentage together is a robust 63 percent. In that span, the Saints have made 50 prime-time television appearances, won six division titles, and gone 8–7 in the playoffs.
The freewheeling, high-flying offensive attack has made Saints football the hottest ticket in New Orleans. Every home game at the Superdome has been sold out since their arrival in 2006, and the city of New Orleans annually leads all U.S. markets in television ratings for Saints and NFL games, according to Nielsen Company and the NFL.
“It’s been the perfect marriage,” McCown said. “You have one of the greatest offensive coaching minds and one of the greatest quarterbacks together, and yet they’re not so egotistical that they have to have it their way. There’s an understanding between the two that is unique. They know that there’s nobody else out there for them. I don’t see Drew ever playing in a different uniform because he knows there’s no other marriage of quarterback to play-caller that will ever be the same for him. And I think Sean’s the same way. We may not ever see that type of connection and productivity between two pieces of the puzzle ever again in this game.”
At 15 years and counting, the Payton-Brees partnership has outlasted some of the greatest coach-quarterback duos in NFL history, making it a unique tandem. Peyton Manning played 14 years with offensive coordinator Tom Moore, but he never had one head coach for more than seven seasons. While Belichick and Brady were together for 19 years and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin and Ben Roethlisberger have been together for 13 years,
neither head coach in those partnerships has an offensive background, making the Payton-Brees duo the most enduring and successful marriage between offensive guru and quarterback in NFL history.
None of the 11 Hall of Fame quarterbacks who have played since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 has enjoyed a run with the same coach to match the 15-year partnership Brees has had with Payton. Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw spent 14 years together in Pittsburgh. Don Shula and Dan Marino teamed for 13 seasons in Miami. Bill Walsh and Joe Montana had a 10-year run in San Francisco.
“They’ve changed football,” said Joe Brady, the precocious passing game coordinator who led the LSU Tigers to the 2019 national championship before taking the offensive coordinator job for the Carolina Panthers. “Sean has changed the way teams play offense, and Drew has changed the way we look at quarterbacks. They’re special.”
And yet as great as Payton and Brees have been during their long tenure in New Orleans, for all of the games they’ve won, all the records they’ve broken and milestones they’ve surpassed, they still have just one Super Bowl victory on their résumé. And that inconvenient truth alone has prevented many longtime league observers and experts from ranking them alongside Belichick-Brady and Walsh-Montana among the greatest coach-quarterback combinations in NFL history.
That’s why heartbreaking losses like the Minnesota Miracle and NOLA No-Call game were so painful for Payton and Brees. More than anyone, they understand how difficult it is to get to that point in an NFL season. And to have the rug pulled out from under them in such unique fashion made the losses all the more difficult to digest. The Payton-Brees narrative might read differently if Marcus Williams hadn’t inexplicably whiffed on Stefon Diggs to produce the Minneapolis Miracle. Their legacy might be viewed in a different light had the referees not committed the biggest gaffe in officiating history against the Rams in the 2019 NFC Championship Game. Or if the defense could have made a late stop in the 2012 NFC divisional playoff shootout against the San Francisco 49ers. Those setbacks prevented Payton and Brees from potentially returning to the Super Bowl and bringing a second Lombardi Trophy back to New Orleans. The Payton-Brees legacy might look entirely different had those games gone the other way.
Winning another Super Bowl was the main reason Brees cited when he announced his plans to return for the 2020 season. And if Payton and Brees can make it back to the big game in 2021 or beyond, they would achieve yet another milestone: it would represent the longest duration between Super Bowl appearances for any coach-quarterback combination in history.
“There’s a level of consistency with that offense that really hasn’t happened before [in NFL history],” Marrone said. “When you look at the number of players and coaches who have filtered through the offense over the years, the amount of production is what’s amazing to me. The one constant has been Sean and Drew. Sometimes when you have such strong personalities in those areas that sometimes conflict can arise. But with them it’s just a connection and a drive for excellence. It’s special, and these types of relationships don’t come around very often. A lot of people are trying to get those types of relationships in this league, but those guys have it. The relationship between them will be a legacy that will last forever and rank among the best of all time.”
The 2020 season went a long way toward enhancing Payton’s coaching credentials. For the first time in his coaching career, he won games without Brees under center. He was winless in three games without Brees in his first 13 seasons as a head coach, losing once when Brees was injured in 2015 and twice when the Saints rested their starters in Week 17 of the 2009 and 2018 seasons. The way Payton led and strategized the Saints to a 5–0 mark while Brees was sidelined with a thumb injury in 2019 made him a leading candidate for the 2019 NFL Coach of the Year award, an honor he won in 2006. It also validated the lucrative five-year contract extension he signed in 2019.
“Drew’s been the heart and soul of this team since he’s been here, but Coach Payton is the leader of this team,” said Taysom Hill, who has been groomed to be the eventual successor to Brees when he retires. “Everyone sees the amount of time that Coach puts into a game plan. So now you have this unique combination of Drew’s preparation, along with Coach Payton’s preparation, and as their teammate and as someone that’s playing for Coach, the last thing you want to do is let one of those guys down. So it just elevates everybody’s game. Drew and Coach make everybody around them better. It has been the best thing for my career to be there with Drew and Coach Payton.”
Back in 2006, few could have seen this coming. Brees was rehabbing an injury to his throwing shoulder so severe that only two NFL teams pursued him in free agency. And Payton’s reputation was still tarnished in some circles by his stint with the New York Giants, where head coach Jim Fassell relieved him of his play-calling duties in mid-season. But in each other, Brees and Payton found providence. Payton and his beautiful offensive mind could help resurrect Brees’ career after it was derailed in San Diego. And in Brees, Payton had the pilot to not only land the plane safely, but also to take him to places he couldn’t go in his own playing career.
Given the number of years they’ve spent together and the extensive work schedule they’ve maintained throughout their tenure, Payton and Brees very well might have worked more hours together in the same room than any head coach–quarterback tandem in NFL history.
“It’s been outstanding,” Payton said. “It doesn’t feel that long to me. It feels like the time has flown by. We both probably look at each other and see a hairline that has receded.”
The journey was an improbable one. Brees and Payton had no previous connections before 2006. They had never met before joining forces in New Orleans. But after all this time, it almost seems like it was destined for them to align in New Orleans. Together, they revived a dormant franchise and helped restore hope to a region trying to recover from one of the greatest tragedies in American history. Brees and Payton will be revered long after they leave New Orleans. Statues will be built. Brees’ No. 9 jersey will be retired. And after a decade and a half together, their names have become inseparable, their legacies inextricably intertwined.
“Drew is one of these players that’s got that gift to improve those around him through his work ethic, leadership, skill set, and playing ability,” Payton said. “There is a mental toughness to how he plays and prepares, that will to win, that work ethic, that attention to detail, that is impressive. A player new to our team comes and sees his preparation habits, that becomes contagious. As coaches, you feel that same sense of obligation to provide the best plan possible. You want him to come in the next day to say, ‘Wow. I love it.’ His approach to business, to every aspect of his life, it’s been amazing to watch. I don’t ever take it for granted.”
The serendipity of their union is not lost on either Payton or Brees. Payton could have landed the Green Bay Packers job he wanted back in 2006. Or Nick Saban could have ignored the advice of the Dolphins medical staff and made a Brees an offer he couldn’t refuse in free agency. They know things easily could have worked out differently and their careers could have veered down a completely different path.
“There’s no way I could have fathomed it would be anything like it is now to be able to work with a guy like Coach Payton,” Brees said. “I never thought that I would have had a chance to be a part of something like this.”
No one knows what the future holds or how much longer the Payton-Brees partnership will last. It’s already carried on longer than anyone expected, which might explain why Brees was prone to bouts of nostalgia during the 2019 season.
Brees was in a particularly reflective mood on the night of his record-setting performance against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 15. His epic 29-of-30 passing performance thrilled a sellout crowd at the Superdome and enthralled a national television audience on Monday Night Football.
Brees’ record-breaking touchdown pass came with 7:13 left in the third quar
ter of an eventual 34–7 Saints win. With his Super Bowl XLIV teammates, close friends, and family in attendance, Brees tossed touchdown pass No. 540 of his career to tight end Josh Hill to eclipse Manning in the NFL record book.
As the crowd rose from their seats and delivered a rousing standing ovation, Brees took the game ball from Hill, removed his helmet, and trotted the length of the field with his right index finger raised in a No. 1 sign to acknowledge the fans. He then blew five kisses in the direction of his wife and four children, who were watching from a luxury suite on the second level of the stadium. Brees then jogged back to the sideline and found Payton, who extended his right arm for a congratulatory handshake. Instead, the quarterback wrapped his arms around his coach in an emotional bear hug.
“First of all, I’m a hugger,” Brees said with a laugh afterward to a packed crowd of reporters at his post-game press conference at the Superdome. “I’m a hugger more than a handshaker. But I wouldn’t be here without Sean.”
Brees then paused, his eyes turned glassy, his voice choked with emotion.
“I appreciate it a lot,” Brees said. “We’ve had a lot of time together. Just looking at the entire journey, 19 years, 5 years in San Diego and 14 years here, playing for the same head coach and in the same offense, all of the incredible teammates and coaches that I have had the chance to play with and for, the foundation, the culture of winning and being successful. I just consider myself very fortunate and very grateful to have had this opportunity to play for such a great coach and for such a great organization. It is very special. I’m not sure how we got here.”
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