After 15 games, Drew Brees has thrown for 4,781yards, completed over 62% of his passes and has thrown 39 touchdown passes. His passing yards are enough to lead the entire National Football League, his completion percentage is just a touch behind Tom Brady, and he leads the league in touchdown passes.
At first glance, it looks like Drew Brees is having another incredible season for the New Orleans Saints. It looks like he has been doing what he has been doing since 2006 when he first stepped on the field as a Saint on opening day in Cleveland, Ohio. However, for only the second time as a Saint, Drew Brees wasn’t selected to the Pro Bowl.
There was a stat left out of the first paragraph. Drew Brees has thrown 18 interceptions this year. He is tied for the league lead with Andrew Luck. Mark Sanchez has thrown 17 and so has Brandon Weeden. With a game to play, Brees will finish the season with the second highest interception total in his career. Why? 
Drew Brees has had to endure the most unfair season of any quarterback in NFL history.
Brees’ unfair season started in the spring when the Saints placed the franchise tag on the greatest player in team history. Instead of placing a blank check in front of Brees to fill out, the Saints ownership negotiated with Brees all through the summer. Finally, on July 13 the Saints made Brees the highest paid player in NFL history by inking him to a 5-year 100 million dollar contract extension. The deal was signed 11 days before training camp.
During the lockout, Brees organized team activities and practices long before training camp that he often paid for on his own dollar. He wanted the team to be prepared for training camp and ready for the season. The Saints finished 13-3 last year and were one defensive stop away from hosting the NFC Championship game. Before this season, Brees missed all of the team’s mini camps and organized team activities because he had to sit by and wait for his contract to be finalized.
While the Saints were negotiating with Brees, the Bounty scandal broke. Commissioner Roger Goodell came down hard on the Saints. Suspensions were handed out to players, the team’s General Manager, assistant head coaches and most devastatingly to the team’s head coach, Sean Payton. Payton was suspended for the entire season. Brees would be forced to play the 2012 season without his running mate.
Brees and Payton have always been a package. Both of them arrived in New Orleans in 2006 to rebuild a team and city that had just been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, Brees and Payton lead the Saints to their first ever NFC Championship game. The team gave the city and region a reason to believe again. In 2009, the Saints started the season 13-0 and defeated the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. Brees was the MVP of the game.
Payton and Brees became the ultimate coach and quarterback combination. Payton called the plays from the sideline and Brees turned the team’s offense into a fined tuned machine on the field. Last season, Brees broke Dan Marino’s single season passing record with 5,476 yards passing. This season, Brees broke Johnny Unitas’ record for consecutive games with a touchdown pass. Brees would be the first person to tell you that none of it would have happened without Payton.
In a sense, the Saints have been blessed with two head coaches. Payton was the coach off the field and Brees was the coach on the field. Like the sweep of a paint brush on canvas, Goodell took away Payton. The Saints were forced to play the first six games of this season with Aaron Kromer (usually the offensive line coach) as head coach. The team went 2-4. During that stretch, Brees threw 7 of his 18 interceptions. It was clear that Brees was trying to do too much.
It had to be clear to anyone watching that Brees was trying to be the Saints quarterback and head coach. Relief was supposed to come in the form of Joe Vitt. Vitt had been Payton’s right hand man and was suspended for the first six games of the season. When he returned, he took over for Kromer as the team’s coach. Initially things clicked. The Saints won three of their first four games to improve their record to 5-5 as they headed into the hardest part of their schedule. The Saints had worked their way back into the playoff picture but would have to tread water in their next three games against the division leaders of the NFC West, South and North.
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The Saints defense hasn’t had a good season. That might be the biggest understatement in this column. Gregg Williams was let go after last season (and eventually suspended indefinitely for his role in the bounty scandal) and Steve Spagnuolo was hired to be the Saint’s defensive coordinator.
Saints fans were warned that with Spagnuolo came a very complicated defense, a defense that would be vastly different than the defense employed by Williams, and a defense that didn’t click until late into Sapgnuolo’s first season with the New York Giants.
The growing pains were obvious from the first snap of the first game of the season. The Saints defense gave up at least 400 yards and 27 points in the first 8 games of the season. The Saints defense has ranked dead last in the league for most of the season. Currently, the Saints rank thirty-first against the pass and twenty-ninth against the run.
The defense put Brees in the awful position of having to play catchup, having to lead his offense to the end zone every single time on the field. If the Saints were going to win games they would have to do it on offense. There was no room for error. There was no getting away with a fumble or an interception. Brees would need to be perfect and you could see it in his eyes. It had to be draining.
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Heading into the games against the San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons, and NY Giants, the Saints had a chance to move into sixth place in the NFC with a win at home over the 49ers. If the Saints could beat the 49ers they would control their own destiny for a playoff spot.
Late in the first half, the Saints defense made their biggest play of the season. With the Saints ahead 14-7, cornerback Patrick Robinson intercepted a Colin Kaepernick pass. Drew Brees had plenty of time to lead his offense to a touchdown and a 21-7 lead or a field goal and 17-7 lead.
Instead, Brees threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown by 49ers linebacker Ahmed Brooks. Despite playing one of their best halves of the season the Saints headed into the locker room tied. Not ahead by 14. Not ahead by 10. Tied.
After halftime, the Saints defense couldn’t hold. Frank Gore scored to give the 49ers the lead 21-14. Brees needed to get back on the field and play catch up again. He had to keep up. He had to make something happen.
On his first pass of the second half, Brees was intercepted again. It was an awful pass and Donte Whitner returned it 42 yards for a touchdown. For the first time as a Saint, Brees had thrown a pick six on consecutive pass attempts. As he walked off the field, he ripped off his chinstrap and his eyes glazed over. The Saints lost the game and were defeated a few days later by the Falcons, and then again two weeks later by the Giants. During that three game stretch Brees threw an astounding 9 interceptions. They were his three worst games as a Saint. In a blink, the Saints were out of the playoff picture.
Brees was emotionally drained. He would never admit it. He hasn’t made an excuse all season. It isn’t his nature. He has stood in front of the media all season and taken responsibility for every mistake, every interception, every loss. He has carried the burden of the ridiculous contract negotiation, the bounty scandal, the coaching changes, and the poor defense on his shoulders all season. Never in the history of the league has a quarterback had to endure what Brees has this season. Not Joe Montana, not Peyton Manning, not Tom Brady. Simply, it has been unfair.
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The season doesn’t end when you are 5-8. There are three more games to be played. A 5-8 team can go two ways. They can quit and finish 5-11 or they can keep fighting and try to finish 8-8.
A team lead by Drew Brees doesn’t quit. After the horrible three game stretch against the 49ers, Falcons, and Giants the Saints have picked themselves off the mat. After the disaster at Met Life Stadium, the Saints went home and destroyed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 41-0. Brees threw for over 300 yards and had 4 touchdown passes. Last Sunday, Brees lead the Saints to a dramatic 34-31 win over the Dallas Cowboys. Brees passed for 446 yards and has 4 touchdown passes. Brees didn’t throw an interception in either game.
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If the Saints can beat Carolina at home on Sunday, they will be 8-8 with an 8-4 record after the miserable 0-4 start. Saints fans everywhere will wonder what if. What if Brees didn’t miss mini camp and OTAs? What if Payton wasn’t suspended? What if the Saints would have started 2-2 instead of 0-4? What if the defense could have learned Spagnuolo’s defense quicker (they are playing their best football now, it’s starting to click)? What if Brees wasn’t forced to endure the most unfair season in football history?
