"It hasn't hit you quite yet" - When Sean Payton made feelings known about Drew Brees' retirement
Former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton knew that their star quarterback Drew Brees was nearing retirement. The former San Diego Charger had sustained long-term effects of the shoulder injury he sustained in 2005. With a dislocated shoulder and torn labrum, the condition of his right shoulder deteriorated, and Brees knew it was time to hang up his cleats. He said,
“My right arm does not work.”
However, moving on from a Hall of Famer isn’t easy, and coach Payton had to prepare himself mentally for the moment. During an interview with Albert Breer of the MMQB in April 2021, Payton said,
“I think it'll be different the first time we have an OTA, the first time we have a minicamp, or the first time we get into training camp," Payton told Breer. "It hasn't hit you quite yet because you haven't done anything football-related. You're involved in draft work, free-agent work. I'm sure there'll be a couple stages to it where it's the first meeting, first practice and so on.”
Brees played 228 games in 15 seasons for the Saints from 2006 to 2020. Throughout those 15 seasons, the Saints registered 142 wins with Brees as a starter, as they won the Super Bowl in the 2009 season, where Brees was also awarded the NFL MVP award.
Brees recorded 68,010 passing yards with an accuracy of 68.8% for 491 touchdowns. The highlight point of his career was the five seasons he played with 5,000 and above passing yards, an NFL record.
Before Brees’ arrival, the Saints had only one playoff victory in franchise history. His tenure brought nine playoff appearances, seven NFC South titles, three NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl win.
Sean Payton acknowledges difficulties in transitioning from Drew Brees to other options
Drew Brees had missed nine games in the last two seasons, which gave some opportunities to Payton to try out their bench strength. But Payton soon realized that transitioning to QB is more complicated than other positions.
“A transition like this, man, it happens at so many other positions," Payton said. "It's obviously more significant because it's QB and because it's someone like Drew. But I think it's part of what we do.”
The Saints had to choose between backup options Taysom Hill, Jameis Winston and an NFL draft pick. However, the Saints didn’t pick any QB from the draft, and they later chose Winston as their starting QB.