Wednesday Morning QB (Week 5)
When talking about the best quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL there are certain names that always rise to the top.
Of course, Tom Brady is the winningest QB of all time with more Super Bowl rings than anyone else and every time he starts a season the talk about him being the best ever rises again.
He may very well go down as that but there is a debate about whether or not his success can match the stats of Peyton Manning.
Manning ended his career with all of the major records but struggled to win titles only taking two Super Bowls with the final one being more about the defence than his performance.
Then there is the man who Manning beat in Brett Favre who was everyone watching, playing with a sense of fun that has rarely been seen on an NFL field.
Not to mention the records including the iron man record that he held when he retired from the game.
Then there are the countless others who can be seen to be the best especially in their era like Bart Starr, Dan Marino, Joe Montana and John Elway.
There are always new quarterbacks coming through as Aaron Rodgers has some thinking he could be the best meanwhile Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield are two just beginning to get some recognition.
There will always be a debate surrounding who the best is taking into account the records they hold or the championships they have won.
Every generation will have their own opinions and their own reasoning behind their thoughts but inevitably there will always be some left behind.
This week one of those quarterbacks became the focus breaking one of the most prestigious records in the NFL.
Drew Brees is often a forgotten great of an era that includes some of the most impressive quarterbacks to ever step on the field.
He joined the league as a much-hyped prospect in 2001 and did well but not well enough for the Chargers to bet on him for their future.
In 2004 he was at the centre of a quarterback battle when the Chargers acquired Philip Rivers from New York when Eli Manning refused to sign with the Chargers after they drafted him 1st overall.
After the 2004 season the Chargers were willing to move on and with Brees entering free agency his time in San Diego was done.
With a bad knee and little hope for his future Brees choose to sign with the New Orleans Saints and from there began to build a legendary career.
Brees was the centrepiece for an offence that has regularly been on the leading edge of the evolution of the passing attack.
With a Super Bowl win and an offence that packed on the yards, Brees became one of the best quarterbacks in the game.
Yet he was overshadowed as his one Super Bowl win never lasted with a team that continued to struggle around him.
He continued to add up the yards but Manning, Brady and Rodgers began to take the headlines by winning championships and being considered for MVPs every year.
Lost in the shuffle was Brees who just continued to quietly add up the yardage and the touchdowns.
As everyone else began competing to be the best in the league Brees just continued to lead potent offences without defences able to get him to the playoffs.
This week all of that silent work paid off when Brees somewhat unexpectedly was on the edge of becoming the leading QB in NFL history.
Entering the Monday night game, Brees had about a game’s worth of yards left to break the all-time passing yards mark.
He also was within striking distance of the all-time touchdown record, a record also held by Manning.
A 62-yard touchdown pass broke one record and helped Brees get that much closer to another record.
Ending the week with 72,103 yards he is the first player to ever break 72,000 yards and with the closest active player being Tom Brady at 67,418 it seems likely that Brees will retire as the leading passer in the league.
He remains only 8 touchdowns away from breaking Manning’s other major record and it also seems likely that he will break that.
In the discussion of the best ever Brees is rarely mentioned but with the biggest record in the NFL and soon to be the second biggest record in the league it is hard to not put him among the discussion.
He has the numbers and a Super Bowl win and while playing among some of the best ever he has separated himself as one of the best in the era if not one of the best of all time.
Fifth Quarter
OBJ Unhappy
In an interview with ESPN Odell Beckham Jr. was a level of honesty that is rarely seen in this day and age among NFL players. OBJ talked about the struggles of the New York Giants and claimed that they should be pushing the ball down the field more. Without a touchdown, this season Beckham hasn’t been having the best season but for the receiver, it is more of a problem with the lack of targets he has been getting ad the unwillingness to push the ball down the field. When asked about Eli Manning OBJ wasn’t exactly committed to blaming the QB but also not taking the blame off of Manning. It was another chapter to the dramatic story that has followed Beckham his entire career.
A Return for Charles
It was a bit of a shock when the Kansas Coty Chiefs decided to let one of their top players walk in the 2017 offseason. The Chiefs cut Pro-Bowler Jamaal Charles in 2017 in what seemed like strange decision but turned out to be a good one. Charles signed a one year deal with the Denver Broncos but only managed one touchdown and shy of 300 yards. That left him without a team for 2018 and there was little interest to sign him. Then came the Jaguars who seem to be without a running back after Leonard Fournette continues to deal with a lingering injury. So with that, the Jags reached out to Charles giving him another chance to recapture that magic.
Moving On
It is tough for a team to give up on a top draft pick as the management teams have seen something in a young player that convinced them he could be a building block. Often that player’s success is directly related to just how good the management group is because they are staking their reputation into that young player. For those management teams, they are focused on giving top picks as much room to develop as they can but there comes a time when it is clear that the development is not going to happen. That moment seemed to come for the New York Giants this week when they waived Ereck Flowers the first-round pick in 2015. Flowers was supposed to become the anchor for their offensive line but never panned out and with Flowers unhappy, the Giants moved on giving up on their top pick.
The Sport Addiction 