At some point the New Orleans offense will need to tail off. They traded away their best playmaker, Brandin Cooks. And Drew Brees is 38; he’s at the point of his career where he could pull a Peyton Manning – not having enough arm strength to function at that same high level.
But any decline hasn’t happened yet. Other than a brief spell where Brees was playing with a shoulder injury a few years back, I haven’t seen him have any problems making any throws. His game has never been based on arm strength anyway.
And while Cooks is a loss, they have had to replace big-time receiving weapons before – most notably Jimmy Graham.
Bottom line is that it’s a winning combination they’ve got there. Brees and Sean Payton have been there since 2006, and 11 years in a row the Saints have finished with top-5 passing numbers. In all but three of those seasons, they’ve finished in the top 2 (that’s using 6 points for touchdowns and 1 for every 10 yards).
| SAINTS PASSING PRODUCTION | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Yards | TD | Points | Rank |
| 2006 | 4,626 | 27 | 624.6 | 2 |
| 2007 | 4,423 | 28 | 610.3 | 5 |
| 2008 | 5,069 | 34 | 710.9 | 1 |
| 2009 | 4,490 | 34 | 653.0 | 3 |
| 2010 | 4,636 | 33 | 661.6 | 2 |
| 2011 | 5,505 | 46 | 826.5 | 1 |
| 2012 | 5,187 | 43 | 776.7 | 1 |
| 2013 | 5,162 | 39 | 750.2 | 2 |
| 2014 | 4,764 | 33 | 674.4 | 4 |
| 2015 | 5,205 | 32 | 712.5 | 1 |
| 2016 | 5,258 | 38 | 753.8 | 1 |
—Ian Allan