Accuracy defines Brees’ greatness
In position to break record for fifth time
Drew Brees threw the football 30 times last Monday night in the New Orleans Saints’ blowout victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
He completed 29. All but one.
That was so impressive a one-game performance it set a new single- game NFL record for completion percentage: 96.67.
It’s fitting that Brees, who turns 41 on Jan. 15, should finally own this record. He’s the most accurate passer in NFL history, with a career mark of 67.6 per cent, and with increasingly pre- eminent season marks.
Yet much more was made Monday night of Brees breaking Peyton Manning’s career record of 539 touchdown passes — much as happened last year when Brees broke Manning’s career pass-yardage record.
As impressive as they are, those are volume records that reflect only a small percentage of throws. Accuracy records take into account all throws, so maybe they should be considered the most impressive records a QB can hold.
Colts head coach and former NFL passer Frank Reich on Monday said Brees has mastered a lot of things as an NFL passer, “but to me it is his accuracy.”
“He has proven it, year in and year out, for a very long time. Even when you have a guy covered, he really isn’t covered. (Brees) always finds a hole. He can do that as well as anybody who has ever played the game. He has the numbers to back that up.”
He sure does. His accuracy has improved throughout his 19 seasons in the league, right into this week.
In his first full season as NFL starter, in 2002 with the then- San Diego Chargers, Brees completed just 60.8 per cent of his throws. Then dipped to 57.6 per cent in 2003. Over the next five seasons, between San Diego and New Orleans, Brees raised his accuracy to the range of 64.3 per cent to 67.5 per cent — much better. He didn’t stop there.
Brees has exceeded the 70-per-cent threshold in five of his previous 10 seasons, and is well on pace to do so again. How rare is that? Consider that all other quarterbacks in NFL history combined before this year had accomplished that statistical feat only six times.
With a completion percentage so far this season of 75.8 per cent, Brees is in position to break the league’s single- season completion- percentage record for the fifth time.
The native of Westlake, Tex., did it the first time in 2009, fractionally bettering the mark Ken Anderson of the Cincinnati Bengals set 27 years earlier, in 1982 — 70.6 per cent. Then Brees eclipsed himself in 2011 with 71.2 per cent. Sam Bradford passed him in 2016 with 71.6 per cent, only to have Brees take back the record in 2017 with 72.0 per cent, and break it again last season with 74.4 per cent.
Anderson, now 70, is retired after 16 years as NFL quarterback ( 1971- 86, all with Cincinnati) and 17 years as NFL quarterbacks coach or offensive co- ordinator ( 1993-2002 with Cincinnati, 2003- 06 with Jacksonville and 2007- 09 with Pittsburgh).
Above the waist, there’s not a lot that can be done to make a passer more accurate, said one of the most accurate passers of his or any other generation.
“Either you can throw the football where you want it to go, or you can’t,” Anderson said. “It’s hard to make somebody who’s a 50- percent passer into a 70- percent passer with just coaching. So much of it is just natural ability.
“Regarding accuracy and throwing motion, you are not going to change someone’s throwing motion, when he’s 21 or 22 years old and that’s what he’s done his whole life … I just wanted to make sure a prospect was athletic enough, because I could change his footwork. I was more concerned with arm strength and arm accuracy.”
Pro Football Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton said accuracy is an elite quarterback’s most important asset.
“Everybody can throw, right? But the great quarterbacks, they are accurate,” said Tarkenton, now age 79. “I would start warming up with someone 20 yards away — and I would aim for his right earlobe, and then his left earlobe, and then I’d go for the right eyeball then the left eyeball. That’s how precise I made myself. So it’s all about accuracy and control.”
I passed along Tarkenton’s comments to Anderson, who was mentored in his first five seasons in Cincinnati by head coach Paul Brown and quarterbacks coach Bill Walsh — two of the most iconic coaches, and innovative minds, in league annals.
“I agree with what Fran was saying,” Anderson said. “In coaching quarterbacks, I found that a lot of accuracy was rooted in balance. It’s your footwork that gives you a chance to be accurate. Steve Young once made the comment that, ‘ If you film me just from the waist down I can tell you whether I played well or not.’
It also helps to have the attitude Brees brings to the position.
“Listen,” Brees said following Monday night’s double record- setting performance. “I go out there with the expectation that the ball shouldn’t touch the ground, unless I am throwing it away.”
A reporter jokingly asked Brees about what happened on his one incompletion, as if he might be bugged about it. Well, Brees was bugged by it.
“I wanted to avoid a sack,” Brees explained apologetically, and in earnest, “and just probably rushed the throw ... I should have completed that one.”
EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE A GUY COVERED, HE REALLY ISN’T COVERED.