Despite what many are seeing on the field to start the 2020 NFL season, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees refutes that he is declining.
In fact, he laughed it off.
“Well, my job is to execute the offense” Brees said following the Saints to the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night, according to ESPN’s Mike Triplett. “My job’s not to have the most air yards or throw the ball down the field most or anything like that,”
Despite Brees’ self-assessment, it’s hard to argue what is seen on field, especially with Brees averaging a putrid 4,82 air yards on passes, a low no quarterback has seen since Brett Favre back in 2009.
“I think I’ve always evaluated myself on being a great decision-maker. And so, at the end of the day, I’ll throw the ball to the open guy, move the ball down the field, score points, help us win football games. So that’s my job,” Brees said. “My job’s to help us win. My job’s to help put everyone around me in the best position to succeed.”
Brees completed 26 of 38 attempts for 312 yards and one touchdown with one interception against the Raiders, but his interception has costly, and baffling.
“Are we totally in sync right now? No, we’re not. We’re not even close to where we are capable of. Not even close,” Brees said.
“Again, I think we just need to be more efficient,” said Brees, who blamed himself for a bad decision on his interception, pointing out that he should have settled for a checkdown on that throw instead of rushing under pressure.
“We called a shot play or two today — and just got the wrong coverage on both of them. So what could’ve been big-play opportunities, what could’ve been throws down the field unfortunately had to be checked down,” Brees said. “But I think both of those [resulted in completions for about 10 yards]. At the end of the day, our job is to move the ball and score points, however we have to do that.”
“We didn’t possess the ball enough offensively, and defensively … we couldn’t get off the field,” Saints head coach Sean Payton said.
“We gotta do a better job coaching. I don’t think it’s gonna be a real pleasant film to watch for some of our star players as well. We have to be precise with what we’re doing. The last two weeks, I think it’s been average at best offensively. We’re not functioning well enough.”
The Saints will be looking to turn things around this Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers.
