Gumbo
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Drew Brees has played for the Saints for so long that many don’t remember he previously played for the Chargers. He also has played for the Saints for so long that many don’t remember he nearly played for the Dolphins.
Fourteen years ago today, the Saints signed Brees to a free-agent contract. As agent Tom Condon has said, Brees at the time had 15 studs in his shoulder, due to surgery to fix an injury that happened in his last game with the Chargers.
For the Dolphins, that was a problem. Coach Nick Saban wanted Brees, but doctors rejected the 2001 second-rounder from Purdue. (Curiously, those same doctors would instead embrace Daunte Culpepper, who had three torn knee ligaments and for whom the Dolphins had to give up a second-round pick.)
Signing Brees was a calculated risk, and his initial six-year, $60 million deal was structured to give the Saints a chance after the first season to pull the plug. Brees also was a fallback for new coach Sean Payton. The former Dallas offensive coordinator wanted to trade for then-unknown Cowboys backup Tony Romo, whom Payton had helped discover and groom. But Cowboys coach Bill Parcells refused to part with the player who would become the starter during the 2006 season, supplanting Drew Bledsoe.
No one has supplanted Brees in New Orleans. He has become one of the top five (in my view) quarterbacks of all time, and he’ll eventually sign a contract to return to the Saints for what will be a fifteenth season. He most likely will become the first player to throw for 80,000 career yards, and he’ll have at least one more chance to walk off into the sunset with a second Super Bowl trophy.
Saban has said in recent years that he’d still be coaching the Dolphins if the Dolphins had signed Brees. (Then again, Saban also once said he’s not going to be the Alabama coach.) If true, what a different world the NFL — and college football — would have been over the past 14 years.