The New Orleans Saints are 27 days away from their opening game against the Arizona Cardinals. We continue our countdown to kickoff with Drew Brees’ 27 yard touchdown to reach 60,000 career passing yards. To this day, he’s in an exclusive group to reach that number, not to mention going 20,000 yards past it.
On third and one with 5:10 remaining in the third quarter, Brees hit Brandin Cooks down the left sideline for a touchdown. This play is more impressive factoring in that Lions edge rusher Ezekiel Ansah hit him late. The Saints were trailing 3-28 before this play. It sparked a comeback attempt that just fell short, losing 27-35.
Despite the loss, this is still a historic game for the Saints with Brees’ achievement. At the time he became the fourth player to ever hit this mark. To date only nine players can claim this achievement.
Drew Brees career accolades
Needless to say, Drew Brees had a legendary career with the Saints. He set the NFL record for passing yards (80,358) and passing touchdowns (571) before Tom Brady claimed it a few years later. Brees ranks high in nearly every passing record. He is still third all time in career completion percentage among quarterbacks with at least 1,500 attempts. Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa are the only two players above him, each having over 8,000 attempts less.
Brees’ career accolades extend far past the stats. Most importantly, he led the Saints to the 2010 Super Bowl and ended up winning the MVP for the game. Despite never winning the regular season MVP, he is a two time Offensive Player of the Year. Brees is tied for sixth all time with 13 pro bowl selections.
The Saints have yet to recover from Drew Brees retiring. They have been in an endless quarterback conundrum, not finding a definitive replacement to run the offense. That extends to this year with the quarterback battle between Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough Although they haven’t had success recently, fans can always look back and relive the glory days with Drew Brees.