Drew Brees will return to action Sunday. Although Sean Payton was not planning to announce a starter until Sunday, Ed Werder of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter) Brees will be tabbed to return.
The Saints have a Week 9 bye, but Brees got in three limited practices this week. Brees has been sidelined since Week 2 with a thumb injury but will step back into the lineup for a Saints team that went 5-0 with backup Teddy Bridgewater.
This marked the longest injury-related absence of Brees’ 19-year career, but he progressed ahead of schedule and will return to lead a 6-1 Saints team. Brees underwent surgery to repair a ligament in this throwing thumb but will be entrusted to keep the Saints’ win streak going.
The 12-time Pro Bowler led the team to the NFC title game last season, doing so after shattering his own completion percentage record (74.4%). The NFL’s all-time leading passer, Brees threw 32 touchdown passes for the Saints last season. The Saints are gunning for their third straight NFC South title, and Brees obviously stands to make New Orleans a more prohibitive favorite. The team is on the lookout for an additional Brees receiving target in advance of the trade deadline.
This makes me scratch my head. 5-0 with Bridgewater, a cupcake game against the Cardinals tomorrow, why not let him get 2 more weeks of rest, and then come fresh after the bye?
They play the Falcons wk10 after the bye. Maybe he and the team are thinking he needs to have the rust shaken off against a low tier team, before having to keep pace with an offense like Atlanta’s.
Granted, the Saints defense will probably diffuse the Falcon offense quite a bit.
I’m just spitballing.
It’s possible the Falcons won’t have Ryan in week 10. I can’t see it being a hard game for the Saints, especially w/ how dismal the Falcons defense is.
I would wait until week 10 if it were me and have Brees run some snaps in a 7 on 7 w/ no tackling.
it’s not a cupcake game if you’ve been following Arizona
The Cardinals-Saints series is tied at 15 wins each so anything could happen.
Sure, they’ve won 3 in a row. Against the Bengals, Giants & Falcons. The best of those 3 is the Giants. How sad is that?
The Saints will dominate the game.
Seems incredibly stupid to me. Let him heal two more weeks would seem the thing to do. Teddys been getting it done. And its the flippin Cardinals!! If they cant beat the Cardinals then they really shouldn’t be considered a playoff team. Just my take I guess.
watch Bridgewater be off to Pittsburgh now
Didn’t Miami kick the tires on Teddy when he was a free agent but decline to sign him? Another Doh! moment for the Dolphins.
If memory serves me, they actually offered him more money and teddy took less to go back to the saints and be the back up.
Probably was due to team stability and future prospect with drew being up there in age. Cant really blame him.
Teddy chose New Orleans. Better situation. Great call! The money he stands to make on that 5 game stretch versus if he had gone to the worst team and put up mediocre stats at best. Prob poor stats the way Miami plays.
They would have certainly increased Teddy’s value by letting him start against the Cardinals; assuming they were open to trading him.
I think he set his value with the 5-0 stretch. Trading in right now, they would prob get max value. You’d have to to justify it. But you also know you can compete at a high level with him as an insurance policy. Look at Philly 2 years ago with Foles. For what his value is to you, in New Orleans, I doubt anyone pays that. And I actually doubt they’d let him go. But I’ve seen crazed things.
This is the player making the decision instead of the coach, with usually is a bad idea.