CHAD did NOT beat BREES. MARTY-BALL and silly play calling did. If they kick the FG, guess what? Our GOLDEN BOY would be a LOSER! Talk about the PITTSBURGH playoff game when GOLDEN BOY could NOT score any points even though he was in the RED ZONE several times!
Big Ben is solid. But IMO He's not better than Chad. He has a stronger arm but I don't think he's better. Chad outplayed him in 2004 in Pittsburgh and the Jets should have won. Plus in that SuperBowl Big Ben played almost as badly as Grossman. LUckily for Pittsburgh the refs rigged the game.
He played great in the playoff run last year and he made the game changing play of the game in the SB last year. Stop looking at Stats and figure it out. Two good D's banged each other and he was able to get out on the run and put the ball 45 yards down the field across he's body to set up the go ahead score before half time. Chad couldn't make that play in a million years. 2004 he was a rookie and self destructed and they still beat us. You know what Chad was doing in his rookie year? He was sitting on the bench behind an old broken down QB.
AH...judging a guy by one game. One game is not a solid sample size, and it sure as hell doesn't tell you what a guys been doing. In the NFL in the past 3 years, Brees has been one of the top 5 QBs easily. Theres little doubt about it.
Ben should not have played a snap this year, he was not in condition to play from day one and was knocked out with a bad concussion early in the year. It was dumb and he and the team suffered for it.
The reality is the QB play in the league stinks, Brees is one of many second tier QB's, you want to say top 5 fine. You better have the absolute best team in football if you think he is going to beat a Manning, Bradey or Palmer QB team. The fact is there is less seperating the 5th best QB with the 20th best QB than the seperation between the top 3 or 4 and every one else.
The list is debatable, but at the least, it's fair. You can argue that Chad might be ahead of Young and Leinart based on experience, but no way based on potential. Romo shouldn't be that high though...
Brees was carrying the Saints on his back for most of the year, with a revolving door of starting WRs due to injuries and an inconsistent running game. I don't care how bad the NFC is, Pennington couldn't do what Brees did this year. I can see if you don't want to put him in the "upper eschelon" of NFL QBs but he's far far out of Pennington's league. Brees didn't play all that badly against Chicago either, by the way. The game got out of hand late but he was victimized as usual by poor WR play in the early going.
The won against a nothing schedule and they are loaded on O. Pennington did just as much with less this year.
Bush was bad as a runner for a majority of the regular season and McCallister didn't come on until late either. Terrence Copper singlehandedly lost them 1 game and is a HUGE downgrade from Horn. They never really had the offense firing on all cylinders at the same time, if that would've happened I think they beat the Bears.
Brees was the problem against the Bears, he simply couldn't get the ball out with any accuracy. The combination of weather and pressure broke him down totally. It's not that I think Brees is bad, I think he is pretty good. He has many of the same problems that Pennington has against the better Defenses and in weather. I prefer a big strong QB that can stand in and deliver the ball when things aren't perfect.
I guess we saw the game differently. Chicago got out to a 6-0 lead because of others players fumbles, then you have the missed FG which would've given the Saints the lead that eventually lead to the safety, which is where the game started falling apart. As for the 2nd part of your post I agree with you, but if we're talking Pennington vs Brees here I don't really think there is a comparison. They may be similar "type" QBs but Brees is superior in almost every way. Take the Bush TD against the Bears for example, I don't think Chad can make that throw with the accuracy and velocity to keep the LB from catching up with him from behind.
I agree with the general sentiment here. Roethlisberger should have been riding the bench until mid-season. The Steelers got caught up in their own post-Super Bowl expectations and couldn't do the smart thing for a change. I still expect him to bounce back next season, although with a rookie head coach the Steelers might be hard-pressed to take advantage of that.
Manning Brady Palmer McNabb Rivers Roethlisberger Bulger Brees Everybody else in the order you want to rank them based on age, performance and potential. I really see this as an 8 QB league right now with Brees barely hanging on at the 8 spot and a bunch of people (including Chad) who could take that spot on a weekly basis. The top 6 or 7 there are definitely head and shoulders above the pack though and the top 4 are superstars.
From my point of view Brees brings a little upside over Pennington with he's velocity and accuracy but he more than losses it with He's height and the fact that he holds the ball to long. That said I'm not ashamed at all that I like arm strength and size and if you can get it a lightning fast release. Brains are great but give me the 6'5" guy with the lazer rocket arm who gets it and has some balls. I'll take a couple of extra INT's for 10 extra TD's and 2 safties who are afraid to come up in run support.
Colston and friends had like 6 drops that game. His WRs that day absolutely sucked. PLUS the running game was getting nowhere. By the way, love the Rivers is getting serious love. On draft day I remember telling my best friend that this guy was going to end up one of the faces of the NFL, and whatever franchise he's in. He's a teams marketing dream, the blonde hair, blue eyed all American boy who also happens to be one of the best QBs in the NFL. It was obvious watching him rip apart defenses in college just how special this guy was. I remember people ripping the Chargers for dumping Brees to get Rivers in. I thought...the Chargers have been bragging about this kid since the minute they got him, why would they resign a guy who just tore his rotator cuff pretty bad just to not play him again?
