Week 21 QB projections   •  NO Stats

QB Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints

HT: 6-1, WT: 220, Born: 1-15-1979, College: Purdue, Drafted: Round 2

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Stats and Week 21 Projection

WK	OPP	RES	CMP	ATT	PYD	Y/A	PTD	INT	RSH	YD	Y/R	TD	FPT
18	vs DET	W, 45-28	33	43	466	10.8	3	0	4	-1	-0.3	0	38
19	at SF	L, 32-36	40	63	462	7.3	4	2	1	5	5.0	0	40
SEASON TOTAL			468	657	5476	8.3	46	14	21	86	4.1	1	490

Week 21 Injury Status and Other News

No official injury reports have been released yet

[Thu Feb 2, 4:29 PM] Drew Brees said he fully expects to reach a new agreement with the team before the free agency period begins in March. "Contract talks are underway as we speak," Brees said. "I have all the confidence we're gonna get the deal done very soon."

Week 21 Matchup Info

The New Orleans Saints have a bye this week.

Game Summaries

Week 1 at GB - Drew Brees started the new season with an all-around accomplished display at Lambeau Field despite having to play from behind throughout the game. The Packers defensive front stifled him often, so Brees had to be mobile in the pocket and at times he made some risky throws into tight windows, especially between the hashes in the short to intermediate range. The Packers secondary maintained a high level of play throughout the game, meaning Brees often had to settle for check down patterns to Sproles. The coverage of the home team was so tight on one particular play that Brees panicked and took a sack which backed the offense up at least ten yards. Brees' decision making overall was sound and he showed good accuracy on most of his completions. The Packers defense mixed up their pre-snap alignments, but the cerebral passer was able to decipher the code more often than not. Off play action in the first quarter, Brees attracted FS Nick Collins to the line of scrimmage and took advantage of his over aggressiveness, tossing a touchdown pass -- albeit slightly inaccurately -- to WR Robert Meachem on a post route. Brees recognised the error instantly and capitalised. With the Saints in need of some plays from their leader, Brees executed a beautiful pump and go with WR Devery Henderson for a score in the third quarter. The cornerback stopped his feet and was unable to regain momentum to catch up with the wide out, who trotted in untouched. In the two minute drill, Brees was clinical in his approach. He completed a phenomenal pass to WR Marques Colston down the seam with trail coverage from CB Charles Woodson and coverage over the top from a safety, threading the needle to find his man. On a well-designed red zone play, Brees faked a backside smoke route, then faked a draw, only then to throw right to a wide open Jimmy Graham. The play confused the Packers safeties, who were out of position.

Week 2 vs CHI - He certainly was slowed down some by the Bears vs what he saw in Green Bay the week previously. Drew is excellent working the short game and just when the Bears thought they could bottle him up he would hit a long pass play to Henderson or later n Jimmy Graham. Brees was calm even when the defense was bearing down on him. He never made a critical mistake the entire afternoon which is difficult against the Bears. Brees certainly was not dazzling by any means but he was very efficient. He never looked rattled and he seemed to know exactly who to throw the football to. It's difficult to get excited about dump offs, screens, and short out routes but just when you think there isn't much to his game he will dial up some stretch play on the defense. With Colston out, Moore still not 100%, it's difficult to say how limited he is in this offense right now. The offense did not have an outstanding day but the again the Bears had shut down Atlanta pretty good the week before so it's not surprising that Brees and the Saints had to earn every yard in this game.

Week 3 vs HOU - n a game where the Saints were not able to mount a consistent rushing game, Brees arm was called on to carry the team. While trailing in the fourth quarter especially, nearly every play was a passing play until the final two minutes. Brees had good protection for much of the day, but threw an interception on one play the pocket broken down. His second interception was a miscommunication between he and Jimmy Graham, who didn't break off his route where Brees expected. Brees worked the pocket well and made good use of pump fakes. Late in the game he looked to Lance Moore heavily. The Saints pass blocking was especially strong down the stretch.

Week 4 at JAX - Drew Brees had a somewhat average fantasy day that was let down by some key turnovers. The Saints somewhat strive to have a balanced offense but often end up throwing almost twice as much as they pass even against a Jacksonville offense that only put up 10 points all game. Brees was accurate from the pocket, decisive and the Saints relied on their QB to pick up first downs. Brees relied heavily on TE Graham and RB Sproles to make plays for him however. He targeted Sproles on many third downs as a security blanket out of the backfield which was a successful strategy and hit Graham down the middle of the field for big plays when the defense looked vulnerable. Brees showed a lapse in vision as he attempted to get the ball to Sproles but failed to see the JAX LB who made an easy interception. He had a tipped pass easily go into the hands of a Jaguar defender for his second interception and could have been picked a third time in the redzone but another Jaguar could not hold onto the pass. Brees played a lot of short ball and although had some mistakes, really kept the Saints on the field and made some big plays with TE Graham which was enough to win this game handily.

Week 5 at CAR - Drew Brees summed up the word 'surgical' with his performance against the Panthers on Sunday. Brees ran the offense with a precision that only the elite quarterbacks in this league can execute. He was accurate, on time and in synch with his receivers. When he thought the Panthers defense were off kilter, he went to the hurry-up and took advantage of their sloppiness. Brees connected with favourite target Jimmy Graham on several occasions, showing the great chemistry that exists between them. His play in the pocket was tremendous -- when he felt the pressure he would make a subtle slide to buy himself an extra second. His first touchdown pass was a quick hitter in the flat to FB Jed Collins off play action -- a simple completion for Brees. His second touchdown pass to Pierre Thomas was the game-clinching score and took his total for game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime to eighteen for his career in New Orleans. Brees' one mistake of the day was an interception on a pass that was intended for Jimmy Graham. Brees saw that Graham was covered underneath and over the top and so he tried to throw the pass high for Graham to go up and get it. Unfortunately the pass was slightly out of his reach. It was tipped by Graham and intercepted. Brees played a sublime game overall and showed why he is considered one of the elite players in the league, not just at quarterback.

Week 6 at TB - It's tough to gauge how much head coach Sean Payton being knocked out of Sunday's football game with a torn MCL and a broken kneecap did for the offense and Brees. On the surface you see that he completed ⅔ of his passes and think he must have been accurate. However he missed badly on some throws and several more of them could have been picked off on Sunday which made Quinton Black's interception in the end zone towards the end of the game quite fitting. Brees does all the little things though that you wish other QBs would do such as constantly looking at still shots of the defense form the sidelines; he is a professional in every sense of the word. After he found Colston wide open streaking to the end zone he started going 3 and out quite a bit the rest of the 1st half. 2 passes he threw early on could have been intercepted but it took a Robert Meachem tipped ball to the waiting hand of Tanard Jackson to create the 1st interception of the day. The 2nd interception by Biggers was a poorly under thrown pass. The final interception could have been avoided if he had looked and found Meachem who drifted out the backside and was wide open in the end zone but instead he forced it into coverage and it was picked off. Bress didn't prevent the Saints from winning the game but it was not his best performance of the year and he made a lot of yards connecting on short plays where his receivers racked up yards after the catch. 1 TD vs 3 Int is not a typical day from Brees but keep in mind this was New Orleans' 3rd game in a row on the road in 3 weeks.

Week 7 vs IND - See the dictionary definition of child's play. That's what Drew Brees made of the Colts' defense Sunday night. It wasn't just that he completed passes to 8 different receivers or that he threw more TDs than incompletions, but his ability to effectively use all his weapons to completely out-class a proud Colts defense, racking up 557 yards of total offense without the benefit of a 100 yard rusher or receiver that made his effort so impressive. There are only 3 offenses that operate with the efficiency Brees and the Saints displayed Sunday night, and they seem to be on a collision course set for late January/early February. No RB received more than 14 carries and no receiver more than 7 targets. Instead, the Saints got 9 different players involved in the offense through the run and pass game, with Brees making most of the calls based on his pre-snap reads. Brees had one of the best days of any QB all year (despite somehow having a less than perfect QB rating), and he did it all in 3 quarters of football.

Week 8 at STL - Brees clearly had a game to forget. Against a surprisingly stout Rams defense, he simply wasn't able to adjust. At the start, Brees had all the time in the world in the pocket but had trouble finding anyone open downfield. Then, when Brees found Lance Moore underneath a couple of times, the Rams brought the pressure. Brees continued to try and get the ball to his favorite targets, Colston and Graham, but the Rams simply took them out of the picture with a mixture of pressure -- to the tune of six sacks on the day -- and good coverage. You could say that Brees beat himself in this game; against a weak defense he tried to dictate the action again and again, and came up with the same result. The more he couldn't beat it, the more he tried to -- which led to mistakes. In the second half, he forced the ball to a well-covered Devery Henderson and was easily intercepted. Then looking for Jimmy Graham, another interception, this time for a defensive score that put the game out of reach. Brees actually had one more poor throw that should have been an interception, but the defender dropped it. His Achilles heel was that he absolutely would not take what the Rams were giving him -- generally the underneath options -- until it was far too late to make a difference. The late touchdown drive was a valiant effort, sure, but was basically a garbage time score.

Week 9 vs TB - Drew Brees moved into tenth all time in league history in completions, surpassing the mark of Joe Namath. Brees played a very sharp game, being smart with the football and taking what the Bucs defense presented to him. In an uncharacteristic mistake, Brees overthrew Devery Henderson on an early deep shot, but he recovered quickly. Brees showed his ability to improvise and dodge pressure several times in this game, allowing him to buy some extra time to make plays down the field. On his first touchdown pass, Brees recognised Lance Moore isolated on the outside in man coverage and audibled to a fade route to Moore. He lofted a picture perfect pass to Moore, who dutifully caught it for the score. Brees' second touchdown pass was a quick screen pass for a 21 yard score to new favourite target Darren Sproles. Brees' sole mistake of the game was a pass on a swing route intended for Sproles which was intercepted. On the play, CB Ronde Barber played peel coverage, keying on the back out of the backfield but making it appear as though he was in zone. Brees simply did not see him. Overall, Brees played a near perfect football game, typical of his home performances.

Week 10 at ATL - Drew Brees saw a size mismatch with his receivers and ATL's defense all game long and kept using this to his advantage. Despite having two drops early on, Brees focused a heavy amount of his targets on TE Graham. Graham was a huge thorn in ATL's defense as he dominated anyone who tried to cover him and Brees knew his guy would win almost every one on one match up. Brees also used Colston a lot over the middle of the field and to pick up many first downs. Colston has a huge frame that Brees likes to target. Colston's massive frame has a huge margin of error for slightly inaccurate passes and the two had a great connection on Sunday. Brees was throwing into tight windows all game but relied on a size advantage to squeeze the ball to his teammates. Brees scored a TD on a ridiculously easy play where Graham was completely uncovered and wide open in the end zone. Brees took a shot to Meachem deep who bailed out his QB with a terrific catch as he plucked the ball away from an ATL DB and gave his team a big touchdown. Brees took a lot of chances on Sunday when his guys had favourable match ups and simply put a lot of faith that his guy would come down with the ball on many pass plays. This worked a lot against the Falcons and he really had a big-time performance, redzone inefficiencies led to a very close game however as they kicked too many FG's.

Week 12 vs NYG - Drew Brees' only worry coming into this game should have been the pass rush of the Giants. This did not show up on Monday night and he completely had his way with whatever was called by the Saints. Brees made big catches downfield look routine against a defense that offered very little resistance in pass rush, stopping the run or covering people down the field. Brees was able to find Moore on a designed short out route that allowed Moore to turn upfield for Brees' first touchdown of the game. Brees missed a wide open WR Moore earlier in the game but made up for this with a second touchdown to Moore. Brees found him in a similar play that let Moore use his quickness to split the defense and give Brees his second touchdown pass. Brees had a lot of time in the pocket at times and was able to find WR Henderson deep downfield as a result. Brees identified TE Graham on the goal line as he was facing backed - off coverage. Brees immediately took advantage of this for an easy "pitch and catch" type of TD pass that looked too easy. Brees managed to escape the Giants defense on one way where it looked like a sure sack but he turned it into a first down over the middle at the last second to RB Thomas. It got embarrassing for the NYG secondary as Brees was able to juke a NYG safety near the goal line and beat him for a rushing touchdown also. Brees then turned a short field thanks to a fumble into a quick strike touchdown pass to Graham on a deep corner route and capped off an almost perfect performance

Week 13 vs DET - Brees was once again right on target in this one, continuing his streak of touchdown throws and keeping pace to break the yardage record. Aside from his three td passes, he also threw a pass to Colston in the endzone that Colston wasn't able to catch, despite a perfect throw. The defender did get a hand up, but Colston could have snagged it. Brees connected on a long pass with Meachem and continued his great redzone work with a precision pass to Lance Moore. He opened the game focusing on Marques Colston and really played ball control in the 2nd half, getting a lot of balls to Graham and Sproles.

Week 14 at TEN - Brees was his usual steady self against the Titans. While he started slowly with two drives that sputtered on the Tennessee side of the field, he eventually found his rhythm in the second half and guided the Saints to a much needed win as they fight to keep pace in the NFC. Brees's best three throws of the day came on scoring plays. On the first, he hit Jimmy Graham on a fade to the right side of the end zone despite sensational Titan coverage. The play was ruled an incompletion as Graham stepped out of bounds but the position and touch of the pass were stellar. He also hit Marques Colston for a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns. On the first, he lofted a 35 yard pass between the middle and deep seams of the defense for a score. On the next, he deftly floated a pass between two defenders as Coltson broke to the right side of the end zone on a "go" route. Brees continues to look unflappable in the pocket and his line is a doing a great job protecting him. He is in complete control of the offense and as seen against Tennessee, it is a matter of "when" not "if" when it comes to getting the offense started.

Week 15 at MIN - When you look at the Drew Brees stat line, please keep in mind that he took his last snap with 12:53 to go in the 4th quarter. Pocket presence and accuracy are his greatest strengths, and the latter was most evident in the first half, with Brees completing 15 consecutive passes. The former was best demonstrated by his late first half TD pass to RB Darren Sproles. Brees felt the pocket collapsing on the edges, so he slid subtly to his right and delivered a strike to Sproles cutting across the middle of the field for the score. Brees and the offense did have difficulty with the noise from the Metrodome crowd, resulting in a few miscues--including an errant shotgun snap before he was ready. The ball was recovered by Minnesota and led to a FG. That was about the low point for Brees and the Saints, though, as he simply took apart the Minnesota defense, completing passes to 9 different receivers at throwing TD passes to 4 different teammates--all in just over 3 quarters of play. One can only imagine the numbers Brees could have put up had the game been even a little more competitive and had he played the full 60 minutes.

Week 16 vs ATL - Drew Brees entered the game only needing 305 yards to surpass Dan Marino for the single season record for passing yardage and based on the early game production it was evident that the record was going to be broken on the final Monday night football game of the season. Driving his team downfield basically on every possession Brees was forced to earn his yardage by using his legs and his uncanny ability to move in the pocket while keeping his eyes fixated down the field finding open receivers in the soft spots of the zones. Brees connected on his first touchdown of the evening with Marques Colston for an 8-yard touchdown allowing his receiver to catch the ball and turn up field and dive for the end zone. Jimmy Graham got into the mix catching a perfectly located pass where only his large frame could reach the ball for 9 yard score. The future hall of famer could've had another touchdown only to have the ball deflected from his all-pro tight end in the end zone resulting in a unorthodoxed interception. Brees did however manage to recover in the second half throwing an aggressive ball to Robert Meachem for a 24 yard score on a great play action fake causing the secondary to flinch for a moment. Brees did seem to get a little nervous the closer he got to the milestone at times appearing to let the moment get the best of him while trying to accomplish greatness. Finally with just under 3 minutes left in the game Brees found Darren Sproles for a 9 yard touchdown placing his name in the record books for passing yards in a season and for being the only quarterback to surpass the 5,000 yard barrier twice in his career.

Week 17 vs CAR - Drew Brees had a simply magnificent display to end his record-breaking season. Despite rumblings that the Saints would sit him if the 49ers game got out of hand, they opted to continue to build momentum and keep him in until late in the fourth quarter. Brees surgically picked apart the Panthers defense, often relying on his big targets Jimmy Graham and Marques Colston to do the damage. His five touchdown passes do not flatter him one bit. Brees audibled pre-snap for his first passing touchdown - a strike down the seam against zone coverage to Colston. His second touchdown to Colston was a good job to taking advantage of the Panthers poor coverage. Seeing Colston one-on-one with a safety, and with plenty of time, Brees fired downfield and Colston obliged. Brees continued to tear apart everything the Panthers threw at it, adding passing scores to Jed Collins, Darren Sproles and Jimmy Graham on a beautiful seam route in the red zone. Brees should continue to thrive in this offense in 2012 and beyond.

Week 18 vs DET - Drew Brees and Sean Payton had a very good offensive plan for this game and executed it extremely well. The New Orleans offense presented too many mis matches that DET could not handle and Brees exploited these all game. Brees felt the rush very well, holding the ball and allowing his WR's time to get open when he had good blocking and getting rid of the ball quickly in times of pressure. His offensive line gave him more than enough time in the pocket and the running game threat proved invaluable as he was able to utilize play action. Brees started the first quarter with a big play over the middle of the field but the Saints struggled with turnovers in the first half and this limited every Saints production. Both Colston and Brees fumbled in the first half which took potential touchdowns away and cut drives short. Brees found WR Meachem open deep down the field with a terrific pass on a go route but Meachem dropped the ball. Brees wanted the big play however and on the very next play he hit WR Henderson deep on a post route who just used his speed to blow past the safety with a well thrown strike down the middle from Brees. Brees did take some risks however and could have been picked off at least twice but DET DB's seemed unable to make the catches when they counted. On the next drive Brees found WR Colston deep on go route with a perfect over the shoulder pass that dropped right into Colston's hands. Brees then identified that TE Graham was uncovered and got him the ball straight away for the easy touchdown. Brees got some more easy numbers as the Lions let WR Meachem streak down the field without anybody covering him for another big score. Brees simply would not stop trying to hit the big play and another strike found Meachem on a go route who fell down just short of the goal line and was unfortunate not to score. Brees owes his performance in great part to his offensive line and running backs who took some of the pressure off the passing game.

Week 19 at SF - It was a roller coaster ride for Drew Brees on Saturday. He engineered the opening drive deep into San Fran territory but unfortunately Pierre Thomas coughed up the football on a vicious hit which put the brakes on things. The next drive was 3 and out as Brees was sacked on 3rd down. The final drive of the 1st quarter Brees threw an ill timed interception which set up San Fran in great territory and suddenly the Saints were down 14-0. Drew stuck with the game plan and continued to dice up the Niners defense and managed to hit Jimmy Graham for a touchdown to cut the lead to 10. Brees would have another successful drive in the 2nd quarter finding Colston on a deep route up the right sideline and Colston managed to get both feet in and knock the pilon down on his way into the end zone. Brees had the Saints in good position for the 2nd half cutting the Niners lead to 17-14 despite throwing another interception that San Fran fortunately did not cash in on. The 2nd half was slow in the 3rd quarter but Brees led the team on 2 late touchdown drives to take the lead on each of them going ahead 24-23 and then again 32-29 but both times he was let down by the defense which was unable to stop the Niners at the end of the football game. Overall he had a tremendous day but just came up a little short in the end. Brees threw for over 450 yards and 4 touchdowns, he did his job.