Disappointing last few years for Brees
Era in New Orleans ends with a thud after Saints' latest post-season disappointment
It's a harsh but fair assessment that the New Orleans Saints' past four seasons have been nothing short of a massive disappointment.
The Sean Payton/Drew Brees era in New Orleans is reportedly over, with Brees expected to announce his retirement any time now following a shoo-in hall of fame quarterbacking career that spanned 20 seasons.
Head coach Payton and GM Mickey Loomis rebuilt the Saints around Brees last decade, with the intention of producing an on-field power worthy of another Super Bowl win or two.
Well, they did produce an on-field power. Only it didn't reach a Super Bowl.
In the regular season, the Saints cruised to the last four NFC South division titles, only to follow it up with three post-season victories — against four ruinous, underperforming defeats. And the three teams the Saints beat in the post-season were all wild cards; they went 0-2 against division winners, and lost to two other wild cards.
Each year, the Saints' defence got better, while the Payton/ Brees offensive struggles only worsened every January. Brees' struggles in particular. Why? Well, first understand the NFL chews up and spits out quarterbacks at a disturbing rate. Young ones, too, not just old guys like Brees. For most NFL passers, four months of accumulated hurts, pains and injuries tend to pile up by January.
Although iron men Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay), Baker Mayfield (Cleveland) and Tom Brady (Tampa Bay) each barely got touched in this past weekend's playoff games, after having made it through the regular season more or less unscathed, look at the other five:
■ Jared Goff, 26, Los Angeles Rams: Had two screws inserted into his right throwing thumb a few weeks ago and still wasn't 100 per cent in the loss at Green Bay, and his backup John Wolford wasn't available after suffering a neck injury the week before;
■ Lamar Jackson, 24, Baltimore: Knocked out Saturday with a concussion late in the third quarter, just over a month after being afflicted with COVID-19;
■ Josh Allen, 24, Buffalo: Played with a wounded throwing shoulder in October;
■ Patrick Mahomes, 25, Kansas City: Hurt his left toe in the first half Sunday afternoon and limped around a bunch before getting knocked out with an apparent concussion late in the third quarter.
Brees: Suffered about a dozen cracked ribs and a deflated lung on a couple of crushing hits in November and missed four games.
Brees, who turned 42 on Friday, never looked quite the same after his return just before Christmas.
For whatever reasons, he wasn't his glistening regular-season self in any of the Saints' past four playoff losses.
In each of the three before Sunday, he had a clunker half of play:
■ 2017 playoffs, loss at Minnesota Vikings, divisional round. First half: 44 per cent completions, 117 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions.
■ 2018 playoffs, loss to the Rams, NFC title game. Second half and overtime: 60 per cent completions, 117 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and he got outplayed by Goff.
■ 2019 playoffs, loss to the Vikings, wild card round. First half: 67 per cent completions, 63 yards, no touchdowns, one interception.
Brees rarely has such ineffective 30-minute outputs during the regular season. For perspective, he led the NFL in completion percentage in 2017 (72.0 per cent), 2018 (74.4 per cent) and 2019 (74.3 per cent) and ranked second this season (70.5 per cent).
Yet in his last four post-seasons, he was off in the deciding games, not just with accuracy but prolificacy; his annual post-season per-game yardage averages since 2017 have continued to fall: 335.0, 275.0, 208.0, 199.5.
In Sunday's 30-20 home-field loss to Tampa Bay in the divisional round, Brees had not one but two clunker halves: 59 per cent, 63 yards, no touchdowns, one interception in the first, followed by 53 per cent, 71 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions in the second.
Can it be a coincidence that the Saints — following seasons in which they went 11-5, 13-3, 13-3 and 12-4 — couldn't put together two playoff wins, when Brees didn't put together two good playoff performances?
Maybe. But probably not. And it might be he didn't because, physically, he couldn't.
MAHOMES NOT CONCUSSED?
It did not appear as though Mahomes got hit in the head on the play on which he was said by the Chiefs, during the game, to have been concussed. I wrote as much Sunday.
Now comes a report from Kansas City claiming he wasn't concussed at all. Rather, he suffered a neck/nerve injury.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid after the game did say, vaguely, that Mahomes had “passed all the tests.” Presumably Reid means concussion tests. Which would then raise a couple of important questions.
One: Why was he announced as concussed, and unable to return?
Two: As neck tests are part of every proper concussion evaluation, how could Mahomes have passed “all” the tests?
Reid would not confirm the neck-injury report, nor add any other details Monday other than to say that Mahomes is in the NFL concussion protocol, and “we'll just follow that and see how he does here the next couple days.”
Former longtime NFL team doctor David Chao, who now writes a column for Outkick.com, diagnoses sports injuries via video with uncanny accuracy.
He wrote: “By video, Mahomes received a direct hit to the shoulder, not the head,” on the tackle in question by Cleveland Browns linebacker Mack Wilson. “He then landed forcefully on his chest. He certainly was wobbly getting up, which necessitates a head-injury check.
“There was speculation that he was `getting choked,' given the neck tackle and the way he appeared `faint.' Concussions can certainly happen without direct blows to the head, and manifestation of symptoms is always unpredictable.”
That said, Chao wrote that occasionally what is diagnosed as a concussion “in the name of safety” during a game is altered later, based on “subsequent examinations.”
“If Mahomes has no symptoms (Sunday night or Monday) he can begin concussion clearance protocol and, barring setback, could be cleared by next Sunday.”
Or days earlier. New Orleans gadget quarterback Taysom Hill was concussed in the regular season finale on Jan. 3, but was then cleared to practise fully on Jan. 7 — only four days later — and played in the Saints' Jan. 10 playoff game against the Chicago Bears.
“Normally, the chances that a player would clear (within seven days) are not good,” Chao wrote. “Given the indirect mechanism of the injury, though, I think there is a good chance Mahomes will clear if he has no symptoms.”
The Chiefs play host to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game this Sunday at 6:40 p.m. EST.
CANADIAN TELEVISION RATINGS TAKE A HIT
Don't go reading too much into it, but Canadian network TV viewership of NFL games during the 2020 regular season was down, year over year, in three of five time slots.
According to Numeris and Total Canada numbers provided to Postmedia by Bell Media, viewership rose only in the Sunday late-afternoon time slot, by five per cent, from 875,000 in 2019, to 921,000 this season.
Thursday nights were flat year over year: 608,000.
Drops came in the early Sunday afternoon window (one per cent, 888,000 to 876,000), Sunday night (nine per cent, 759,000 to 692,000), and Monday night (560,000 to 520,000).
A big reason might be that early in the season, NFL games were competing for eyeballs for the first time with later-round NHL playoff games (through September) and NBA playoff games (deep into October), both of which were delayed for months by the pandemic.
The NFL season kicked off Sept. 10.
But those distractions don't account for a 15 per cent overall drop in Canadian viewership — on CTV and TSN — for NFL wild card playoff games, Jan. 9-10. The most watched of those six games was played in the afternoon: Sunday's Chicago at New Orleans game (1.45 million) and Saturday's Indianapolis at Buffalo contest (1.43 million).
Least watched of those wildcard playoff games was the Sunday night Cleveland at Pittsburgh game (942,000). It was the only one not aired on CTV as well as TSN.
TEAMS START FILLING HEAD COACH VACANCIES
Late Sunday, the Los Angeles Chargers announced they have hired a replacement for fired head coach Anthony Lynn: Brandon Staley, the Los Angeles Rams' defensive co-ordinator. He'll be introduced Thursday.
The Detroit Lions have settled on New Orleans assistant head coach Dan Campbell to be their new head coach, according to numerous reports. But he still must be formally interviewed, and that won't happen before Wednesday, reports say.
The Houston Texans, still in disarray and still searching for a new head coach since firing Bill O'Brien fully a quarter of a year ago, were to interview Baltimore assistant head coach David Culley on Monday. Also, the Texans were granted special permission Monday by the NFL to remotely interview Eric Bieniemy, Kansas City's offensive co-ordinator, and Todd Bowles, Tampa Bay's defensive co-ordinator.
Previously, the Texans interviewed former Detroit and Indy head coach Jim Caldwell, former Cincinnati head coach Marvin Lewis, Carolina offensive co-ordinator Joe Brady, Indianapolis defensive co-ordinator Matt Eberflus and Buffalo defensive co-ordinator Leslie Frazier.
The Philadelphia Eagles, a week into their hunt to replace fired head coach Doug Pederson, on Sunday interviewed New England offensive co-ordinator Josh McDaniels. The Eagles also lined up interviews with Bieniemy and Bowles, per reports.
EXTRA POINTS
Tampa Bay wide receiver Antonio Brown was to undergo an MRI on an injured knee, head coach Bruce Arians said Monday … Kansas City safety Daniel Sorensen reportedly won't be fined for his unflagged helmet-to-helmet hit on Cleveland WR Rashard Higgins … Tampa Bay has designated NT Vita Vea for return from IR. He broke a leg in October but could now play Sunday … San Francisco promoted linebackers coach DeMeco Ryans to defensive co-ordinator, and run-game co-ordinator Mike McDaniel to offensive co-ordinator. The latter replaces Mike LaFleur, now the new New York Jets' offensive co-ordinator under new head coach Robert Saleh, whom Ryans replaces … Jacksonville let go John Idzik, assistant to the GM and former Jets GM … If you missed it on the weekend, Matt Canada is Pittsburgh's new offensive co-ordinator. So Canada will call plays for Canada's Chase Claypool. There will be confusion.