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Winless In Seattle
Robin PottratzThe Chargers were right to keep Phillip Rivers over Drew Brees
December 27th 2011 14:27
Drew Brees broke Dan Marino’s single season passing record with one game to go in the 2011 NFL season. After watching Brees put on a clinic against the Falcons I had to wonder. Do the Chargers still think Phillip Rivers is better than Drew Brees?
Here is a comparison between Drew Brees and Philip Rivers since the Chargers let Drew go to the New Orleans Saints. Since 2006 Drew Brees has 27,698 passing yards, 192 touchdown passes and 90 pass interceptions thrown. Brees has a 67.8 pass completion percentage. Oh yeah Drew Brees has a Super Bowl Ring and broke Marino’s record with a game to go this year.
Since taking over for Drew Brees with the San Diego Chargers Phillip Rivers has the following stats. 23,975 passing yards, 160 touchdown passes, 77 pass interceptions and a completion percentage of 63. 5. The Chargers have been the ultimate under achievers and have not sniffed a Super Bowl with Phillip Rivers.
Now I feel the Chargers had to make the decision to go with Rivers after trading Eli Manning to the Giants for him. To keep Rivers on the bench after all that hype would have been a public relations nightmare. Drew Brees did keep Phillip Rivers on the bench for two seasons.
And looking back Drew Brees was a slightly better than average NFL quarterback with the San Diego Chargers. As a Charger Brees was not considered a franchise quarterback by most people. At San Diego Drew Brees had a 62.2 pass completion percentage, a full five points lower than he has done in New Orleans.
So we must now look at the systems and coaching differences between the Chargers and Saints while Drew Brees and Phillip Rivers have been starting. Norv Turner has been the offensive coordinator and or head coach of the Chargers since both players have been in the league.
Turner was an offensive genius when he had the Dallas Cowboys offensive line along with Aikman, Smith and Irvin. Since then he has been a bust of a head coach but a decent if not good offensive coordinator with several NFL teams.
Turner favors a medium to long range passing game set up with power running. So some of Phillip Rivers’s stats are lower due to the running of LaDainian Tomlinson and the other Charger backs. As a matter of fact read here to see how Turner’s system is a descendant of Don Coryell’s system.
Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints had a varied coaching pedigree being exposed to West Coast Offense philosophies in Philadelphia under Jon Gruden and also power running with the Giants as an assistant.
However Coach Payton is a passing coach who favors a higher percentage of plays than Turner’s system. The Saints will take shots down field but are masters of the screen pass to take pressure off of Brees.
I don’t think Drew Brees would be as successful if he had stayed in San Diego with Norv Turner. And Phillip Rivers does not have the accuracy to be as good as Brees in the Saints system. So the Chargers made the right decision to keep Rivers over Brees even if the stats say different.
Here is a comparison between Drew Brees and Philip Rivers since the Chargers let Drew go to the New Orleans Saints. Since 2006 Drew Brees has 27,698 passing yards, 192 touchdown passes and 90 pass interceptions thrown. Brees has a 67.8 pass completion percentage. Oh yeah Drew Brees has a Super Bowl Ring and broke Marino’s record with a game to go this year.
Since taking over for Drew Brees with the San Diego Chargers Phillip Rivers has the following stats. 23,975 passing yards, 160 touchdown passes, 77 pass interceptions and a completion percentage of 63. 5. The Chargers have been the ultimate under achievers and have not sniffed a Super Bowl with Phillip Rivers.
Now I feel the Chargers had to make the decision to go with Rivers after trading Eli Manning to the Giants for him. To keep Rivers on the bench after all that hype would have been a public relations nightmare. Drew Brees did keep Phillip Rivers on the bench for two seasons.
And looking back Drew Brees was a slightly better than average NFL quarterback with the San Diego Chargers. As a Charger Brees was not considered a franchise quarterback by most people. At San Diego Drew Brees had a 62.2 pass completion percentage, a full five points lower than he has done in New Orleans.
So we must now look at the systems and coaching differences between the Chargers and Saints while Drew Brees and Phillip Rivers have been starting. Norv Turner has been the offensive coordinator and or head coach of the Chargers since both players have been in the league.
Turner was an offensive genius when he had the Dallas Cowboys offensive line along with Aikman, Smith and Irvin. Since then he has been a bust of a head coach but a decent if not good offensive coordinator with several NFL teams.
Turner favors a medium to long range passing game set up with power running. So some of Phillip Rivers’s stats are lower due to the running of LaDainian Tomlinson and the other Charger backs. As a matter of fact read here to see how Turner’s system is a descendant of Don Coryell’s system.
Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints had a varied coaching pedigree being exposed to West Coast Offense philosophies in Philadelphia under Jon Gruden and also power running with the Giants as an assistant.
However Coach Payton is a passing coach who favors a higher percentage of plays than Turner’s system. The Saints will take shots down field but are masters of the screen pass to take pressure off of Brees.
I don’t think Drew Brees would be as successful if he had stayed in San Diego with Norv Turner. And Phillip Rivers does not have the accuracy to be as good as Brees in the Saints system. So the Chargers made the right decision to keep Rivers over Brees even if the stats say different.
Rivers was the better choice than Brees for San Diego. Photo by Conoman33 from Wikimedia
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