Why Drew Brees's status as an elite quarterback makes him overrated
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| Enough is enough. Someone needs to point a finger back at Drew Brees. (Getty) |
Brees has received a pass for far too long because he is such a (pun-intended) saintly human being. He puts his faith in Jesus, has a cute little kid from a beautiful wife and willingly headed to New Orleans as a free agent in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, where he took on the process of giving something for his city to believe in. He's a good person, but that's not a football statistic.
Thanks to the craze of fantasy football, Brees has been revered as one of the greatest quarterbacks of his generation. That's simply not true. He's a good quarterback, there's no argument there, but he is not among the elite. To be blunt: he's overrated.
On the field, Brees has greatly benefitted from playing indoors for a team that generates its offense from its short passing attack. In his eight years in New Orleans, the rushing attack has ranked an average of 20.625 among 32 teams, and in five of the eight seasons, it's ranked 25th or worse. This means that Brees spends most of his time throwing the ball and accumulating stats ... and, in today's fantasy world, those stats reign supreme over the actual truth.
I'm here to preach the real-life stats.
A week ago in Philadelphia, Brees's picked up his first-ever road playoff win in his 13-year career. Sure, he won a Super Bowl MVP in 2010, but his team never had to go on the road until the neutral-site Super Bowl in Miami. Overall, he's 6-4 in the playoffs and just 1-4 on the road, including a loss in January 2011 against the worst team ever to make the postseason (the 7-9 Seahawks).
His supporters would point out that his defense hasn't held up its end of the bargain in some of those losses. Admittedly, the 2011 loss was by a score of 41-36 and last year's ousting in San Francisco was a 36-32 final. But, excuses don't revert him to the status of "elite."
In a postgame debate with fellow Stubborn OXen writer, Austen Elmore, last night, he texted me, "he's totally not overrated. He's a great dude. He's not Peyton or Brady, but if you played inside all year long, he might be the best QB in the league."
This is the Drew Brees denial that needs to be dispelled. Everyone's quick to throw Peyton Manning under the bus for losing in the postseason or Tony Romo for tossing a late interception in a 48-48 tie. Nobody wants to hear the truth about Brees, because, as Austen correctly pointed out, "he's a great dude."
First of all, not every game is played indoors and it's completely absurd to judge somebody by their ability to play 16 games inside. Football was made to be played outdoors, and that's where it's most often played. This brings up the argument of which QB would actually be the best, all things considered equal.
I've selected six quarterbacks, all of whom have played in the NFL for at least the better part of a decade, and all but one of whom have won at least one Super Bowl. For the sake of addressing Austen's comments about playing indoors, I'll list the QBs by career Indoor Passer Rating: Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Tony Romo, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning.
While it's odd to see that Manning was last in Indoor Rate just as telling that Brees is fifth on the list. It's not realistic to make an argument that he'd be the best QB in the league if every game were indoors, when he's fifth on this list (and keep in mind, this doesn't account for any of the younger QBs in the league).
Because Drew Brees has at the worst Outdoor Rate at just 89.6 (and just the fifth best Indoor), it's not a surprise to see that he came up on the bottom of the list with an Adjusted Rate of just 92.6. To put that in perspective, his career would have ranked him as the ninth-best QB in the NFL in 2013. Not terrible. But, elite? Absolutely not.
To be fair, there's more to playing QB than Passer Rating, but take a look at the table and try to find a place where Brees ranks elite among the other selected QBs: his winning percentage is fifth; his road winning percentage is tied for fourth; his postseason record is middling (keep in mind that half of the six wins came in one run to the Super Bowl).
In regards to Saturday's loss, of course it's tough to win in Seattle against the toughest defense in the league. There's no argument there. But, the greatest quarterbacks of all-time can find ways to win those games.
In Brees's case, he's passed for over 5,000 yards in three straight regular seasons, and he got held to 34 in the first half against Seattle. He finished the day with 309 yards, but he got lucky on a 52-yard heave to Robert Meachem that was woefully short and bounced through the hands of two Seattle defensive backs. Then, he racked up 85 yards on a last-minute drive with the game out of hand. Those numbers will only further skew the fact that he played horribly.
Elite quarterbacks will overcome playoff adversity on the road, others won't.
All in all, Brees is a good quarterback and a great human being, but I'm not going to keep my silence as he heads into another offseason. It seems that everyone is satisfied blowing in the Brees, and I've put down my roots to take a stand: Drew Brees is not an elite quarterback.
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