Drew Brees took the time out to talk about the Saints’ slow start to the season and where they go from here
We’ve seen some outstanding quarterbacks come through the NFL this generation, but one of the more successful has been New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. Currently playing his 16th season in the league, Brees has compiled over 61,000 passing yards with 433 touchdowns and a career completion percentage of 66.4 between his time as a member of the San Diego Chargers and the Saints.
Brees is also navigating his way through the season with a new contract extension that was given to him by the organization right as the regular season was getting underway. The deal contains $44.25 million in guaranteed money, which will be paid out over the course of the next two seasons.
With the NFL season just getting off the ground running here in 2016, Brees was courteous enough to sit down and talk with us about a number of topics.
Jack Jorgensen: Drew, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk with us. Before we get into the NFL season, tell us about the work that you’re doing with the folks from Tempur-Pedic.
Drew Brees: I don’t know how much you’ve seen of the Tempur-Breeze campaign that was put together this off-season, but it was a lot of fun to do. It involved my center Max Unger, and talking about how the offensive linemen “sleep hot” so they need a bed that’s gonna be super adaptable to their shape, weight, size and the fact they also get hot. So that’s the Tempur-Breeze in a nutshell. It’s instantly adaptable to how your body sleeps, especially for the people who sleep hot like the big o-linemen. What was fun about it too was I’ve slept on a Tempur-Pedic for the last 10 years, so I love Tempur-Pedics, I wouldn’t sleep on any other bed. The new Tempur-Breeze with the technology took it to a whole other level. I actually love it so much that I bought Tempur-Breezes for all of my offensive linemen; I gotta make sure I take care of the guys that take care of me.
JJ: Now unfortunately, I was hoping this conversation would be a little more positive, but obviously you guys aren’t off to the start you’d hoped for. The loss to the Giants on Sunday moved your early record to 0-2 on the year, but there’s a whole season left and your losses were close.
In your mind, what needs to be addressed to get this team back on the right track with so much of the season left to go?
DB: Well, we gotta keep plugging away, There’s no excuses, there’s no feeling sorry for ourselves. We just have to think about executing as best we can on both sides of the ball, playing tough, and then at the end of the day, just find ways to win these games; find ways to make the plays that can make the difference in the game at the end.
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Both of our first two games really came down to — I know there was a handful of plays in each of these games at the very end, and if we had just made one of them, we win the game. Unfortunately we didn’t, so we lost, but I think when you turn on the tape and you get down to are the guys doing what they’re being coached to do? Are they playing with great effort? I think all of those answers are yes. So it’s just a matter of when it comes time to make that play we gotta make it. It’s a learned skill; it’s not just something that happens, we just gotta continue to work at it. I feel like a breakthrough is coming. We’ve got a great group of guys that work and aren’t sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. It’s just a matter of us coming out every day and eventually breaking the seal, getting that first win of the season.
JJ: Throughout your career, you’ve been surrounded with some great weapons on offense. Throughout the first two weeks, a name that has come up a lot is a young man, second-year player out of Ball State, Willie Snead. How big has his development been?
DB: He’s been great. I love the road that he’s traveled. He started off on our practice squad two years ago and really broke out in training camp last year. Slowly he’s just become more and more involved with a bigger role in the offense. He’s very versatile, he can play inside and outside, he’s tough, he’s a great blocker, super smart where you can give him a lot of responsibilities and he makes really good decisions. He’s just really an instinctive player. I think it’s his toughness and competitiveness that make him the player that he is.
He’s such a prideful guy too in the way that he works and the way that he prepares, and I really just couldn’t be more excited about all of our young receivers.
JJ: Speaking of the talent around you, one of the questions coming into the season was whether or not you and the Saints would come to an agreement on the extension, which you ultimately did. With your contract on the books now and considering the cap situation, do you feel that this team can win a Super Bowl?
DB: Yeah, of course I do. I wouldn’t say we’ve got a cap “situation” at this point. Who knows what next year holds, but I know this year we’ve got the right guys here and, listen, along the way you’ve gotta catch your breaks. We’ve got some guys dinged up right now but we can win games and get some guys healthy, be at the right place at the right time and who knows what can happen.
We’re close, we’re so close that we can taste it. We just gotta get that first one under our belt.
JJ: Now this is not a retirement question by any means, but in your 16th season now, you’re undoubtedly at the tail-end of your career. Given that, how do you perceive the legacy that you’ve built for yourself in the NFL?
DB: Well I’m not gonna reflect right now, just because I feel like there’s so much left to accomplish, but at the end of the day when I first came into this league I wanted to leave it better than I found it. I don’t think I anticipated a 16-plus year career, I was just trying to make it. You just have to set short-term goals. When I first came into the league it was how can I help my team win and how can I start? I got that opportunity in my second year when I won the starting job in San Diego. After that it was, okay, how do I become a real good player in this league? How can I take my team to the playoffs? How can I make the Pro Bowl?
Then, a few years later it was how can I play in this league 10 years? Then, how can make it to age 35? Then you hit 35, and I’m 37 right now, so it’s kinda like where do we go from here, you know?
You just keep setting new goals for yourself. There’s always new challenges out there that you’re trying to accomplish and overcome, and that’s all part of the fun.
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JJ: Given how respected you are as a quarterback in this league, when you look around the NFL, what young quarterbacks are you excited to see grow in the same way that you and some of the other greats have?
DB: I think there’s probably a couple generation of quarterbacks in the league right now. Tom Brady and I came in this league just one year apart; he came in in 2000 and I came in in 2001. Peyton [Manning] was maybe part of that generation too, just slightly before us. He just retired, so now maybe Tom and I are that first generation.
Then I think you got that ’04-05 generation, which is Philip Rivers, Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers. So you got that generation, then you have that ’08 generation which is Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, you know, those guys. And then you have this young generation with [Blake] Bortles, Derek Carr, Jameis Winston, and [Marcus] Mariota. Then you have these new guys that you can put into that category as well in Carson Wentz and Jared Goff.
You know, every few years you kinda got a new generation of quarterbacks that are doing great things. Some are right in their prime, some are just kinda entering that stage. Listen, I think there’s a lot of great quarterbacks in this league right now.
I know Washington started off 0-2 just like us but I think Kirk Cousins has a bright future in this league too. I think there’s quite a few guys that have a really bright future in this league.
Drew Brees is supporting Tempur-Pedic “Brees on Breeze” campaign, which includes a series of digital videos as well as a sweepstakes, to launch the new TEMPUR-Breeze line – the only mattress offering a revolutionary integrated system of cooling technology designed to help keep the body cooler during sleep.