Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
‘Green’ energy keeps Brees sustained
Starts 19th season with belief he’s still learning
METAIRIE, La. — Saints quarterback Drew Brees practically laughed while describing himself as “still green” at the onset of his 19th NFL training camp.
The smile on the 40-year-old’s face looked like an acknowledgment of how silly he knew he must have sounded as he spoke, even if, to him, there was real logic behind his assertion.
“By no means have I arrived,” said Brees, a former Super Bowl MVP and the NFL’s all-time leader in yards passing with 74,437. “I had a coach tell me, ‘As long as you are green, you will continue to grow. As soon as you are ripe, you’ll soon be rotten.’
“As soon as you think you know it all, you’re done,” Brees continued. “So I’m still green. I’ve still got things to learn.”
Brees is in the final season of his contract, but has declined to specify how much longer he might play.
He is by no means in denial about the erosion of skills every older athlete faces, but he strives to be proactive in his approach to maximizing his longevity, from the way he trains to the way he eats.
The father of three sons and a daughter talks of “finding ways to stay young, feel young, recover, just be as efficient as possible, having the body operate as efficient as possible, doing all the little things to be as accurate as possible, be as quick as possible.”
He takes an academic approach to learning about the effects of aging on the body and how to mitigate them.
“I study all that stuff,” Brees said. “I feel like I’m pretty aware of what you lose with the aging process. So everything I do from a training perspective, from a recovery perspective, is to combat that. So you just try to stay ahead of that curve — right? — stay ahead of that curve. And so far, I feel like I’m beating it.”
Last season, Brees passed for 3,992 yards, more than in any of his first five NFL seasons in San Diego, but fewer than any season since his arrival in New Orleans in 2006. The extent to which age contributed to his relative dip in yards passing is a matter of debate. The Saints’ offense has been oriented more toward running and short passes since the arrival of 2017 Offensive Rookie of the Year Alvin Kamara, and New Orleans has been one of the NFL’s top six rushing teams in each of the past two seasons.
Meanwhile, Brees’ NFL record 74.4 completion percentage last season was complemented by a touchdown to interception ratio of 32-5, better than all but one QB: Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers (25-2).
“Nothing’s changed,” Payton said when asked if he’s had to adapt play-calling specifically because of Brees’ age. “It’s not like we’ve had to go in a different direction. Look, when we’ve been able to have balance on this team and play good defense and create turnovers, it’s been a pretty good formula for us.”