Before Saints glory, Drew Brees battled injuries and a tough Chargers team. Discover the unexpected San Diego chapters of his Hall of Fame journey.
Yesterday, it was announced that Drew Brees had been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was his first year on the ballot.
Brees spent 15 of his 20 years in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints, and famously led the team to a Super Bowl victory in the years following Hurricane Katrina while also being named to the NFC Pro Bowl team in every season but three.
However, before that, Brees was a San Diego Charger. He was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2001 NFL Draft by the Chargers, who traded away the #1 overall pick (Michael Vick) for a package of picks because they liked Brees better (and they knew they needed more than just a QB).
You would be well within your rights to forget the Drew Brees era in San Diego (more on that in a second), but I'm not sure he ever forgot it. Which explains why Chargers legend Dan Fouts was the one to break the HOF news to Brees:
When Brees was drafted, it was still relatively common practice for rookie QBs to take a year to learn before getting a shot at the starting job, especially for a 2nd round pick. That's why he spent his rookie season backing up Doug Flutie on a pretty bad Chargers team that eventually led to the firing of Mike Riley and the hiring of Marty Schottenheimer.
Brees won the job in 2002 and he, along with LaDainian Tomlinson, led the Chargers to an 8-8 record despite having an awful defense.
The 2003 Chargers improved their defense but their offensive line sunk them. It got so bad for 24-year old Brees (2-9 in 11 starts) that he was benched in favor of 41-year old Doug Flutie. He got his job back late in the season, when the team needed to figure out if he was good enough, and he discovered a new partner in rookie TE Antonio Gates.
The decision was made that offseason to draft a franchise QB with the team's first round pick. They eventually selected Philip Rivers, who lost a chance to win the starting QB job out of training camp after missing a chunk of it dealing with a contract dispute (this thing used to be very normal for high draft picks!). After he signed, it was assumed that it was only a matter of time before he took the job from Drew Brees.
Brees went to the Pro Bowl in Rivers' rookie season and never seriously seemed in jeopardy of losing the starting job. In 2005, he wasn't quite that good and it seemed as though he lost the zip on his deep ball that forced defenses to open up space underneath for him to carve them up.
The decision was made for them in Week 17, when the head coach (Marty Schottenheimer) and the GM (A.J. Smith) were fighting over who should be the starting QB in 2006. Schottenheimer loved Brees, but Smith wanted to prove that Rivers was worth the high draft pick the year before. Brees ended up playing against the Broncos in a meaningless game and, in it, suffered one of the worst shoulder injuries in the history of professional sports. It was his last game before hitting free agency.
The Chargers did, in that offseason, present Brees with a contract offer. I believe it was on-par with that of a backup QB role, and I remember their offer was topped by the Miami Dolphins. I don't think the New Orleans Saints offered him the most money, but they did guarantee him the starting QB job, even while he was recovering from a massive shoulder injury. He took it, and the rest is Hall of Fame history.