One of the most prolific careers in NFL history has ended when New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees announced Sunday on Instagram that he decided to retire after 20 seasons.
Brees’ four children announced in a video, “After 15 years with the Saints and 20 years in the NFL, our father will finally retire. So he can spend more time with us! Yes!” said his sons Baylen, Bowen, Callen and Rylen.
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Drew Brees, with the help of his children, officially announces his retirement from the NFL.
Brees added a message to the post that read:
“After 20 years as an NFL player and 15 years as a saint, it’s time to retire from the game of football. Every day, I poured my heart and soul into being your quarterback. Until the end, I I was exhausted to give everything I had to the Saints organization, my team, and the great city of New Orleans.We shared amazing moments together, many of which are drawn into our hearts and minds and will be a part of us forever.
“You have shaped me, strengthened me, inspired me and given me a lifetime of memories. My goal for the last 15 years has been to strive to give you everything you have given me and much more. I’m just retiring from playing football, I’m not retiring from New Orleans. It’s not a goodbye, it’s a new beginning. Now my real life begins! “
Brees, 42, retires as the all-time NFL leader in yard passing yards (80,358) and ranks second in all touchdown passes (571) and finishing percentage (67.7%) ). More than that, however, Brees will always be revered for helping revive the Saints franchise and the city of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina when he and coach Sean Payton arrived together in 2006.
They led the Saints to the NFC Championship that first year and won the only Super Bowl in franchise history three years later, and Brees was named the game’s MVP.
“When the Saints were hired as head coach in 2006, the first goal was to establish a functional, winning culture,” Payton said in a statement. “In doing so, it was vital to know what we were looking for in a player, talent, work ethic, makeup, intelligence and leadership are qualities we found in Drew Brees … I am always grateful for what he has made for our team, our community and for me personally. “
Brees never returned to a second Super Bowl despite leading the Saints to four consecutive NFC South titles in the last four years. His last game was a disappointing 30-20 loss to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the playoff divisional round, the first time he threw three interceptions in a playoff game.
His decision to retire leaves a huge gap for the Saints to fill with Taysom Hill, Jameis Winston or a quarterback who will be named later.
Brees ’legacy has long been assured as one of the greatest of all times in the game.
In addition to all the historical successes and achievements, Brees will also be remembered as a great story of all time. At just 6 feet tall, Brees was recruited by just two colleges before a record-breaking race at Purdue. He fell in the second round of the draft in 2001, where he began his career with the San Diego Chargers.
In his last game with the Chargers in 2005, Brees suffered a devastating shoulder injury: a 360-degree labrum tear and some damage to the rotator cuff, which required 12 anchors to repair. Renowned surgeon James Andrews later said Brees’ recovery was the most notable athlete he had ever tried, and Brees returned to the field with the Saints in Week 1 of that unforgettable 2006 season.
“Drew is far more valuable than all the records, awards and recognitions he accumulated during his 15-year career with the New Orleans Saints and his 20-year career in the NFL, one of the greatest in the history of our league.” said Saints owner Gayle. Benson said in a statement. “When Drew first joined the Saints in 2006, my late husband Tom was determined to deliver a team to New Orleans that would win a field championship and become a community leader after the setbacks of Hurricane Katrina he suffered in our region. Over and above his excellent performance, Drew came to represent the determination, passion and drive that resonate not only among Saints fans and footballers, but also our entire community. “
Brees finished his career with a 172-114 record as a starting quarterback in the regular season and 9-9 in the postseason. He was 142-86 and 9-8 in 15 years with the Saints, where his collaboration with Payton produced some of the most spectacular offensive teams the game has ever seen.
Brees threw more than 5,000 yards in a five-time different season; no other quarterback has done it more than once. He has the top three single-season completion percentages in NFL history and six of the top nine.
Brees has been ranked among the top ten NFL passer in ESPN’s Total QBR metric in the 15 seasons since it was created in 2006; a streak that is six years longer than any other quarterback in that period.
Although he never won a regular season MVP award, Brees finished second on record four times.
Brees has long said he believed he could play at a high level until he was 45, as long as he wanted to keep playing. But starting in 2017, he also said he would start taking each season one year at a time (treating each as if it were his last) and that it would take some time after each season to reflect with his wife Brittany and their children. about whether he wanted to keep playing.
Brees had already lined up his “next chapter” last year, when he agreed to become an NBC analyst after his gaming days were over.
After losing just one game due to injury in his first 18 seasons, Brees suffered some major injuries at the end of his career. In 2019, he missed five games after breaking a tie in his thumb. In 2020, he lost four games after suffering a punctured lung and 11 broken ribs.
Retiring now, Brees is paving the way for teammate Brady, 40, to finish ahead of him in his two most outstanding NFL record book races. Brady has 10 more TD runs than Brees and needs 1,155 passing yards to overtake Brees.
Brees also leaves a large salary cap of $ 22.65 million that the Saints must consider over the next two years because of the way they chose to structure their past contracts. However, this year they have already reduced his $ 25 million salary to the veteran minimum of $ 1,075 million this year so they can wait until after June 1 to officially process his retirement. As a result, they can reach $ 11.5 million of their remaining cap costs by 2022.
Brees will count $ 12,225 million against this year’s limit through June 1st. Then, his 2021 term limit will drop to $ 11.15 million after his retirement becomes official.
This is a big problem for the Saints, who were more affected by the NFL’s reduced salary cap than perhaps any NFL team this year. They started the low season nearly $ 100 million above the limit before cutting Brees ’salary and releasing veterans like Emmanuel Sanders, Janoris Jenkins, Kwon Alexander and Thomas Morstead, among others.
The Saints also restructured Hill’s contract to create a tapas room. Hill received a four-year, $ 140 million contract extension, but every year is voidable and is a mechanism to free up maximum space this year, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. This year it saves the Saints more than $ 7.5 million against the limit this year, and their contract numbers this year include a $ 9.686 million signing premium, a guaranteed list bonus of $ 1.439 million dollars and a guaranteed base salary of $ 1.034 million plus incentives.
On a positive note, Brees leaves the Saints in decent shape when it comes to backup options. Hill, who is hired until 2021, remains unproven as a 30-year-old quarterback with double threat with limited experience. However, he made it 3-1 as a starter replacing Brees this season with four TD passes, four TD runs, two interceptions and three missed falls in this four-game stretch.
Winston, meanwhile, is an unsigned free agent. But he chose to come to New Orleans last summer on a minimal contract so he would have a chance to learn from Payton and Brees and possibly revive his career as Brees ’successor. And recently Payton made it clear that the Saints want to re-sign him and allow him to compete for the starting job.
Although Payton chose Hill as Brees ’short-term replacement in 2020, he has insisted the team has great potential for Winston. And Payton has repeatedly insisted he believes “our next quarterback is in the building,” either Hill or Winston.