You often are who your record says you are in the NFL, but Drew Brees feels the New Orleans Saints are better than their 4-9 tally suggests. The former Saints quarterback took stock of his old team during an appearance on WWL radio Thursday night, discussing their year so far and what’s ahead of them.
“They’re not a 4-9 team, but they’re 4-9,” Brees conceded, pointing to some things the team has done well that were undercut by too many low moments, bad breaks, and self-inflicted wounds. He continued, “And I think that’s probably the disappointing part, and I still feel it along with the guys in the locker room, your heart hurts.”
The Saints have been competitive in most of their games this year, but they haven’t finished strong and have racked up too many losses with poor play in the second half. And Brees has an inside track on how those defeats hit his friends and peers in the locker room: he shared the title of team captain with Demario Davis and Cameron Jordan, completed hundreds of passes to Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas, and he’s still close with many people in the building despite having been away for two years.
So Brees knows better than most what so many frustrations can do to a team’s morale. The Saints would probably be in a better spot right now if they weren’t shackled with the least-ambitious coaching staff in the league, but Dennis Allen has made that bed, so he’s got to lie in it. Too many punts on fourth down and short field goal tries have defined Allen’s philosophy of playing not-to-lose rather than trying to win, and it’s resulted in too many lost games and missed opportunities.
It’s a bad process that’s led to bad results, and the Saints are worse off for it. They’re a better team than their record implies — they rank near league-average in points scored and allowed, yards gained and yielded per play, third down conversions, and a host of other key stats. But at the end of the day, they’ll be eliminated from the playoffs because of their record and nothing else. This team is worse than the sum of its parts, and a lot of that comes down on coaching. Everyone can see it. Even Brees.
