Saints quarterback Drew Brees has put up some huge passing numbers for the Saints over the years, but their approach has been different this year.
With Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara on board in the backfield, Brees is on pace for the fewest passing yards and touchdowns of his time in New Orleans but that drop isn’t indicative of a drop in play. Brees is completing 71.9 percent of his passes, which would be an NFL record for a single season, and he’s on track for the lowest interception percentage of his entire career.
That performance has the Saints in position to clinch the NFC South this weekend, which makes it easy for Saints coach Sean Payton to shrug his shoulders about the drop in Brees’ raw stats.
“We’re not in the business of playing fantasy football,” Payton said, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “We really aren’t. We’re in the business of winning. So, if that upsets all the people that have a player on our offense or defense or somewhere in the fantasy games of the world, then that’s tough. But our job is to win, and that’s probably one of the first criteria that you’re graded at as quarterback. And he knows that.”
Brees needs to throw for 300 yards this week to finish with more passing yards than he had in 2009, which is also when he threw his fewest passes in a single season. The Saints won a lot that year too and finished the season as Super Bowl champions, which Payton and the rest of the organization hopes will be a harbinger of what’s still to come this season.
