Drew Brees Injury: Everything We Know

Here's a look at everything we know about the Drew Brees injury situation, and what it means for the Saints going forward.

Drew Brees is going to miss some time with the Saints, but it's unclear as to how much. As we learned on Monday, Brees is dealing with multiple cracked ribs and a collapsed lung. Similar to last season, New Orleans is going to have to find a way to win without their superstar quarterback. Here's everything we know about Brees and the injury right now.

The Saints aren't giving any type of official injury update until Wednesday.

If you have learned anything about Sean Payton, it's that he doesn't like to discuss injuries and won't. During Monday's conference call, Payton opened by saying that he wouldn't address it or answer any questions related to it. Again, this is not surprising. Payton said that Wednesday is the first required day for the Saints to report them. 

Early reports say that Drew Brees doesn't appear to be heading to injured reserve.

According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, injured reserve is not currently being discussed. He'd be out for at least three games, if the team decided to head in that direction. Brees said during his post game press conference that he was going to take his injury one day at a time. Obviously, cracked ribs and a collapsed lung is not ideal. An optimistic view would say he'll be back in a couple weeks, but that remains to be seen. 

Sean Payton hasn't named a starting quarterback for Week 11 against the Falcons.

Payton mentioned that there's no benefit to announcing a starting quarterback earlier rather than later for the week, and obviously wouldn't commit to either Jameis Winston or Taysom Hill against Atlanta. Winston is 4-5 in his career against the Falcons, going 190-of-2886 (65.9 completion percentage) for 2,499 yards, tossing for 25 touchdowns and 9 picks. He's been sacked 11 times.

Payton hasn't visited with Brees yet.

He mentioned that he had not seen Brees as of Monday morning, but that he's sure he'll have a chance to visit with him in the next 24 hours. Both of them are very close, and for Brees to go to Payton and admit that he wasn't capable of playing in the second half is pretty crazy considering how much he's been through and toughed out.

The Saints have four favorable games over the next four weeks.

On the docket for New Orleans is playing Atlanta twice, Denver, and Philadelphia. Naturally, the home game against the Falcons for Sunday is what's on everyone's mind, and then the Saints will be on the road for three straight weeks. Their combined record is 9-18-1. 

• Run Defense Rankings: Falcons (6th - 99.7 YPG), Broncos (23rd - 128.8 YPG), Eagles (26th - 133.0 YPG)
• Pass Defense Rankings: Falcons (31st - 310.3 YPG), Broncos (14th - 231.2 YPG), Eagles (6th - 211.8 YPG)

Drew Brees is as tough as nails, and was hurt before this.

Brees played through the pain to help lead two scoring drives for the Saints. There's a ton of respect there, and that's just the epitome of who Brees is. According to ESPN's Ed Werder, it's believed that Brees had been dealing with three fractured ribs on the left side of his body from the game against the Buccaneers. Werder said they did not show up as such on the X-ray performed at the time, possibly because of inflammation, but they were clearly seen on the CAT scan performed Monday.