Drew Brees came back to Saints to chase Super Bowl
Drew Brees is excited for the 2020 New Orleans Saints season, and he said on Saturday morning in a conference call with the media that he chose to come back for another year for his team. The rift that evolved from his June comments seems to be a thing of the past, at least that's what we've heard and been told by multiple leaders in the organization. Now, the focus is on preparation for his team to be in a position to get back to and win a Super Bowl.
"That's why I came back," Brees said when asked about the mentality of Super Bowl or bust that teammate Terron Armstead mentioned the other day.
"I came back for my team, and I came back to chase that. We'll take it one day at a time, one week at a time, but man, I'm going to enjoy every second of this journey and just value every moment, stay in the moment."
"I also feel that this year is going to be about something much greater than football, and at this point I think that was an understatement."
Brees had a strong back half of the 2019 regular season with some impressive and memorable performances, but didn't look as sharp in the playoff game against the Vikings. Many have had opinions and thoughts regarding his arm strength, but Brees isn't concerned about his deep ball in 2020. He's even had some videos that show it looks pretty good.
"If the opportunities are there, I let it fly. And if it's not, then you check it down and live to play another day." He says he doesn't think it's a lack of being able to do it or calling plays, but has been working hard with throwing coach Tom House since March to ensure he can throw the deep balls.
"We've applied a lot of different techniques and a lot of different training methods. There have been some moments of discovery with us this offseason."
Brees added that COVID-19 has made things a challenge because of not being able to go to the normal places to do the normal things, adapting to work with what they were doing for a training perspective. Most of that happened in Brees' backyard, which had beneficial things that he's hoping to benefit from.
Brees has also worked with some of the Saints players during the offseason in San Diego, even revealing that he specifically flew out to Denver to work with Emmanuel Sanders in late June, saying that they had a good couple of days together.
Brees also mentioned that he's had a chance to spend some time with Jameis Winston, who came to the Saints to learn from a great quarterback room.
"He's a joy to be around. You can tell he loves the game. He loves ball." Brees said they've traded a lot of text messages and calls during the offseason, as Winston was attempting to learn the offense remotely, asking questions about concepts.
As far as any speculation regarding this being the last season for Brees, that's just what it will be. Brees gives the team their best chance of making a deep postseason run in 2020, and in a year where nothing is concrete, this could be a special season in the making for the Saints. However, we'll have to see see how things play out and take it one day at time, just like Brees said.