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I know I suggested last week that we should probably ignore Peter King, but then he went and posted an ARTICLE giving Drew Brees his props for an outstanding run here in NOLA. It's Drew's quotes below that most interest me:

Give Drew Brees his props. In the 89-year history of the National Football League, only one player has thrown for more yards in a three-year period than Brees has thrown for in his last three years. This is Drew Brees we're talking about, not any of the very famous quarterbacks I'm going to show you in this chart. Here are the best three-year runs for the modern legends, and near-legends, of our day, ranked by passing yards:

Player Years Pass Yards TD-Int W-L Dan Marino 1984-86 13,967 122-61 34-14 Drew Brees 2006-08  13,910 88-46 25-23 Peyton Manning 2004-06  13,024 105-39 34-14 Warren Moon 1989-91 13,010 79-48 28-19 Kurt Warner 1999-01 12,612 98-53 35-8 Tom Brady 2005-07 12,445 100-34 38-10 Brett Favre 1997-99 12,170 88-62 32-16 John Elway 1993-95 11,490 67-34 24-24 Jim Kelly 1991-93 10,683 74-54 36-11

"It's just numbers,'' Brees said when I told him about this gaudy list Friday. "It's not a very big deal. To be mentioned in the same breath with Marino, Elway and all those guys is a great honor. Wow. But in the grand scheme of things, we don't have the ring. One of the reasons nobody would know about those numbers is, look at our record. [The Saints are 25-23 in that period.] Marino won more; I bet he was in the playoffs every year of those three years. We've made 'em once. Peyton's been in the playoffs a lot. Favre has. So winning's a big part of it. If you have numbers without the winning, it doesn't matter.''

He's right, but there's something about Brees over the last three years that I find amazing. Remember when he messed up his shoulder late in his last game at San Diego in 2005? Miami shied away from giving him the big money because Nick Saban was worried about the shoulder being whole in training camp. The Saints had faith and gave him six years for $60 million, and Brees has done everything he can to pay back Sean Payton and GM Mickey Loomis for believing in him when other teams wouldn't. He and Payton are a great match, and Brees knows it. "I've been given one of the best opportunities of anyone in football, and I'm loving every minute of it,'' he said.

Way to get me and possibly other Saints fans to listen to you again, Pete. Post an article praising our QB for the phenomenal player and leader he surely is. I really like that Drew doesn't give any real importance to his passing yard totals. Like he said, it's all about getting the ring. In case anyone might have missed the "Sports Science" video of Drew's incredible passing accuracy first posted about two months ago, you can find it below:

Also interesting to me (and maybe me alone) is Pete's speculation that Matt Stafford will become the Lion's starter sooner rather than later. Could he face the Saints in week one? Probably not, but I'd love to see how Gregg Williams' defense would welcome him into the NFL. You know the Saints won't really show what they're going to do on defense until week one of the regular season. How will the Lions' offense prepare for that?

It's beginning to look a lot like Stafford. "The last mini-camp in June, we're going to have an arms race,'' said Detroit coach Jim Schwartz. Between Daunte Culpepper and No. 1 draft pick Matthew Stafford. From the sounds of Schwartz, Culpepper needs to be really, really good to hold off the hard-charging kid.

Is it the right decision? We'll see. I've thought all along the Lions should let Culpepper take the body blows of the early season schedule (at blitzing New Orleans, followed by Minnesota and Washington at home, Chicago on the road, then Pittsburgh at home). Those are some aggressive defensive coordinators licking their chops waiting to play the rookie. I've thought for that reason plus the hazards of playing a kid, let Stafford sit, well-padded and protected, while learning. Doesn't sound like the way the Lions are thinking. If Stafford's clearly the best man, he'll play the opener.

"We've got two criteria for when Matthew will play,'' said Schwartz. "One is he'll play when he's ready. The second is when he's the best quarterback for us. But so far, whatever the opposite of buyers' remorse is, that's what we have. We knew he had the terrific NFL arm. But we've found out his release is just textbook classic.''

 

On a different note, I like this redesigned Post Editor. Thanks SB Nation! There's a slight learning curve involved, but it seems easier than the previous Post Editor.