Turf Show Times
The Rams and Saints once had a great rivalry, playing against each other twice per season from 1970 until 2002 realignment, but still going back and forth with barn burners most of the time after that change. That includes one of the most memorable playoff games of recent NFL history, a 26-23 Rams OT win in the NFC Championship that featured two teams that won 13 games in the regular season and necessitated getting the better of Drew Brees, Sean Payton, and Michael Thomas.
But these Saints are not those Saints. New Orleans hasn’t been the same since Brees retired, a cautionary tale for any franchise that assumes they can withstand the aging/retirement of a great quarterback.
As long as we’re comparing Brees with Matthew Stafford, it is worth noting that L.A.‘s 37-year-old quarterback would play four more seasons if he was on the same timeline as the Saints’ destined Hall of Famer.
In fact, Brees led the NFL in completion percentage at ages 38, 39, and 40, and those seasons rank fifth, first (74.4%), and second as the all-time best completion percentage seasons in NFL history!
Completion percentage has become kind of a ridiculous joke stat in modern football, but not in Brees’ case as he also led the NFL in success rate those years, had a passer rating of 110.3 in the last four seasons of his career, and the Saints went 41-13 in his final 54 starts from age 38-41.
Brees knew his strengths and weaknesses, but so did head coach Sean Payton, and the duo remained successful right until the bitter end of their partnership, making the playoffs in all four of his last seasons and winning a playoff game in three of those campaigns. Even as Michael Thomas faded into obscurity, Brees and Payton found a way.
Until Payton no longer had Brees.
Despite getting a year to groom Jameis Winston as the heir apparent to Brees when he retired, Payton soon had to find out how monumentally different the quarterbacks were under center. Winston “won” a QB competition against Taysom Hill, a career gadget player, and they added backup journeyman Trevor Siemian just before Week 1 of the 2021 season.
How much different is this plan than holding onto Jimmy Garoppolo and Stetson Bennett? Not much. I mean, the details are a lot different, but at the end of the day L.A.’s two backup quarterbacks are backups for a reason and nobody else in the league has shown any urgency to add them to their rosters to compete to start. Even as the Minnesota Vikings search for answers at the position, there are no rumors of Kevin O’Connell pushing for Garoppolo or Bennett.
And there are even rumors that the Vikings want Winston.
Winston’s stats were actually not bad in 2021 and the Saints went 5-2 in his seven starts, but completion rate plummeted (58% as a team) and the offensive lacked any consistency, reliability, or explosiveness. New Orleans also went 4-1 in Hill’s...
