We are down to single-digit days before the New Orleans Saints' 2026 season opener. New Orleans travels north to kick off the year in nine days when it plays on the road against the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Sept. 13. There have been five players in Saints history to wear the No. 9 uniform. No one in the history of the NFL wore it better than Drew Brees. With no New Orleans player wearing No. 9, probably (hopefully) ever again, Brees was an easy choice for our Saints Player of the Day feature.
- Name (age): Drew Brees (47)
- Hometown: Austin, Texas
- Position: Quarterback
- Height, weight: 6-foot, 209 pounds
- College: Purdue Boilermakers
- Drafted: Round 2, 32nd overall in 2001 (San Diego Chargers)
- NFL career: 20 years (15 with Saints)
At Austin Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, Brees received collegiate interest in both football and baseball. After an ACL injury in his junior year, most of the remaining recruiting interest shifted to football, where the all-state honorable mention
and state champion quarterback eventually chose Purdue. Brees saw only moderate action for the Boilermakers as a freshman in 1997, but the following year would lead the Big Ten in passing yards (3,753), touchdowns (36), completion percentage (65.1), and completions (336). His statistics dipped a bit in 1999 with one less game, but he still led the conference in yards, completions, and attempts.
Brees led Purdue to its first-ever Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl berth in 2000, leading the Big Ten with 3,393 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, 286 completions, and a 60.5% completion percentage. He was the 2000 Big Ten Player of the Year, won the Maxwell Award as the nation's most outstanding player, was a finalist for the Davey O'Brien Award, and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He'd leave Purdue as the Big Ten all-time career leader in passing yardage, total yards, passing touchdowns, completions, and attempts. In 2009, Brees was inducted into the Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame.
After the San Diego Chargers traded the first overall choice in the 2001 NFL draft, quarterback Michael Vick, to the Atlanta Falcons for fifth overall choice LaDainian Tomlinson, the Chargers then selected Brees with the first choice of the second round (Thanks, Atlanta!). As a rookie, Brees appeared in only one game in mop-up duty, but won the Chargers starting job in 2002. He'd split time with Doug Flutie in 2003, starting 11 contests with a 2-9 record but also getting benched for Flutie during the year. San Diego pulled off a trade for quarterback Philip Rivers in Round 1 of the 2004 NFL draft, but Brees held the first-rounder off for the starting job. Brees led the Chargers to a 12-4 record and an AFC West title that year, winning the 2004 NFL Comeback Player of the Year. He completed 65.5% of his throws for 3,576 yards with 24 touchdowns to earn the award.
Brees and the Chargers weren't as effective in 2005, falling to a 9-7 record and missing the playoffs. In a season-ending loss to Denver, Brees suffered a severe shoulder injury that would require reconstructive surgery. It was clear that the Chargers were going with Rivers in 2006 anyway (Thanks, San Diego!), but the surgery scared many teams away from Brees as he entered free agency. Only the Saints under new coach Sean Payton and the Miami Dolphins showed heavy interest in the quarterback. Miami looked to be the leading choice for Brees, until the Dolphins wanted to put several injury-related clauses in a new contract (Thanks, Miami!). As a result, Brees chose Payton and the Saints, as the region and franchise were trying to rebuild after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. Brees helped lead New Orleans to a 10-6 mark, an NFC South title, and the franchise's first appearance in the NFC Championship Game. In the process, the quarterback with a surgically repaired shoulder led the NFL with 4,418 passing yards while completing 64.3% of his throws for 26 touchdowns.
2006 was only the beginning for Brees. He shredded NFL defenses and records for 15 seasons with the Saints, leading New Orleans to nine playoff appearances, seven division titles, three trips to the conference title game, and a Super Bowl XLIV championship with MVP honors. He threw for over 5,000 yards an incredible five times, including an NFL-record 5,476 in 2011 that obliterated a 27-year-old mark by Dan Marino. Brees led the league in passing yards seven times and completion percentage six times while resetting his own NFL record four times in the process. He threw for more than 30 touchdowns 10 times, leading the NFL four times and tossing for over 40 scores twice. While it's still absolutely criminal that Brees never won a season MVP award, he was the 2011 Offensive Player of the Year, made 12 Pro Bowls, and earned first- or second-team All-Pro honors five times.
The list of NFL records for a game, season, and career that Brees held is too long to go into great detail. In 2012, Brees broke a 52-year record held by Johnny Unitas for consecutive games with a touchdown pass, a mark he'd extend to 54 games. Brees became one of only eight players to throw seven touchdowns in a single game during a 2015 victory over the Giants. His 74.4% completion percentage in 2018 remains an NFL single-season record. Brees has 123 regular-season games with at least 300 yards passing, including 16 games with over 400 yards. Both are NFL records.
Brees retired after the 2020 season as the NFL career leader in passing yards, touchdowns, completions, and attempts. He was eventually passed by Tom Brady, who needed four extra seasons and 48 more games to do it.Already enshrined in the Saints Hall of Fame (2024), Brees will be in the Saints Ring of Honor and was a 2026 first-ballot inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Drew Brees is not only the best player in the history of the New Orleans Saints organization, but also the most influential figure in the history of sports in the Gulf Coast Region, on the short list of the best NFL quarterbacks of all time, and the greatest NFL player to put on the number 9 uniform.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Countdown to Kickoff: Drew Brees is the Saints Player of Day 9
