New Orleans Saints: Is it time to talk about a quarterback controversy?

With a mediocre game from Drew Brees, can a case be made for the New Orleans Saints benching him for Teddy Bridgewater?

There is no doubt that in Drew Brees’ absence, the New Orleans Saints backup quarterback shined. Sunday, Drew Brees threw for a season-low, sub-300-yard game and had zero touchdowns.

He finished with a QBR of 87.9.

In Bridgewater’s six starts, he only had one of such games.

This may be premature, but with Brees winding down his career and Teddy getting started in his after getting through early-career injuries woes, is it out of the question to start to talk about a Bridgewater for Brees switch?

We have seen this happen to two quarterbacks already this season.

In New York, long-time starting quarterback Eli Manning was benched for up and coming rookie Daniel Jones. In Cincinnati, Andy Dalton, the Bengals starter for almost the last decade, was benched in favor of rookie Ryan Finley.

Therefore, it is not out of the question. But, we’ve yet to see it on a championship-caliber team like the Saints. It’d be unprecedented for them to make such a change.

Both of those teams were off to a horrendous start to the season and needed change.

The New Orleans Saints are not that way, but could Bridgewater add more of an upside to the offense than Drew Brees can right now. At what time do you make a call to bench a future Hall of Fame quarterback?

Brees is currently in his nineteenth year, which is second only to Tom Brady for the longest active starter at the position. Bridgewater is in his fifth season (3rd with more than 5 games played).

Over the six games we saw Bridgewater play this season, he averaged 228.33 yards per game and  1.5 touchdowns per game. He also averaged a QBR of 98.9, 6.2 net yards per pass, and was only sacked 1.8 times per game (sacked 5 times in one game).

Drew Brees in his four games, averaged 267 yards per game and 1.25 touchdowns. On the other hand, he averaged a quarterback rating of 99.8, 7.09 net yards per pass, and was sacked 1.75 times per game.

While the stats all say Drew is the still better quarterback, they also say that Bridgewater is not far behind him in terms of production.

Bridgewater made a case in his six appearances that, should Brees continue to have mediocre games like the one against the Atlanta Falcons, the talk about him becoming the starter should begin to start.

The next question that arises is this — Should the New Orleans Saints let Brees walk in the offseason and sign Teddy Bridgewater to a long term deal making him the future?