The fantasy football impact of losing Brees and Roethlisberger
Lost in the Brees
They call him the breeze, or at least that’s what Lynyrd Skynyrd said back in 1976. Drew Brees has been New Orleans’ storied cornerstone piece to their franchise for the last 14 years. During his time there, he’s racked up over 62,000 passing yards, 442 touchdowns to 182 interceptions, and has led the Saints to six winning seasons, one of which was a Super Bowl victory back in 2010.
Prior to Sunday’s game against the Rams, Brees and company looked like heavy favorites to lead the league in offense as they possess some of the most dynamic playmakers in the game on their side. Throughout the offseason, people were clamoring to claim Brees on their rosters with the hopes for some big things to come this year.
Brees got off to a fast start last Monday night as he threw for 370 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception during that dramatic 30-28 victory over the Houston Texans. Everything was going according to plan and the sky appeared to be the limit.
Sadly, it was short-lived as just six days later Brees would fall victim to the injury bug. The injury occurred in the first quarter after Brees attempted a pass down-field to tight end Jared Cook. At first, no one noticed anything was wrong with Brees after the pass fell incomplete.
The Saints wound up punting the ball on the next play without anyone realizing what had just happened to the Saints’ quarterback. When the game resumed from a commercial break though, that’s when the concerns started to crop up. We saw Brees on the sidelines getting his right thumb checked out. A little after that, the replay was shown where Brees ended up hurting his thumb.
It turns out he hurt it on that last pass to Cook midway through the first quarter of the game. Rams defenseman Aaron Donald came charging in at an unprotected Brees and threw up his hands to try and deflect the down-field pass. In the process, Brees’ hand made contact with Donald’s causing the injury to take place.
From that point on, fantasy managers were left helpless as they witnessed Brees remain on the sidelines for the rest of the game. Teddy Bridgewater came in for relief but to no avail. The Saints’ offense could never find their rhythm and as a result, lost the game to the Rams 27-9. It was a dismal day all around for the Saints and their fans.
As previously stated, not only were managers of Drew Brees negatively impacted by his injury but so were the people who had playmakers like Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara on their rosters as well.
Thomas recorded only 10 catches for 89 yards and no scores, while Kamara rushed 13 times for 45 yards and had just one catch for an additional 15 yards. These are not the types of numbers we’ve grown accustomed to seeing both these superstars put up over the last couple of seasons while Brees was under center.
According to Adam Schefter on Twitter, “Saints quarterback Drew Brees is expected to undergo thumb surgery as early as today that would be expected to sideline him approximately 6 weeks”. While it is encouraging to hear that the Saints haven’t lost their franchise quarterback for the entire 2019 season, it will still be an uphill climb for them during this next month and a half.
Let’s hope for a speedy recovery to one of the most prolific passers of this generation.