Coming out of college, Drew Brees was projected as a first-round pick, but concerns about his height, arm strength, and spread-offense background dropped him to the Chargers in the second round. He fought to stay on the field there, only to lose his job in San Diego after a major shoulder injury in 2005 that seemed like the end of his career. Now, nearly a month after his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction, Brees is looking back on exactly how he got there.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“You know, never in my life had I been told before that I wasn’t good enough to play, and that happened not once, not twice, but three times in San Diego,” Drew Brees said. “You can look at any of those bits of adversity one of two ways. Either you go in the tank, and you feel sorry for yourself, or you recognize, you know what? I do need to get better, and I’m gonna come up with a plan that is gonna put me in a position to be as good as I can be.”
Brees got drafted by the Chargers with the 32nd overall pick in the second round, and spent 2001 through 2005 in San Diego. That run ended painfully. A Week 17 shoulder injury in 2005 was serious enough that the Chargers didn’t bring him back.
After the serious shoulder injury, Brees signed with the New Orleans Saints, rehabbed hard, and delivered an unforgettable 2006 debut season.
Drew Brees returned to San Diego for the first time as a Saint in 2016, delivering an emotional pregame speech before facing his former team. Standing on that same field years later, Brees didn’t hold back.
“It was right here on this spot 11 years ago. I didn’t know if I was ever going to play football again! I thought my dream was getting ripped away from me!” he said, before adding that what came next mattered just as much.
“But now I’ve got another chance to play for the New Orleans Saints, and I don’t take that for granted! Embrace the opportunity!” he said, per ESPN.
The opportunity came at a strange moment for both sides. The Saints were six months removed from Hurricane Katrina, coming off a 3-13 season, and didn’t even have a stadium they could play in. New head coach Sean Payton was rethinking the roster from top to bottom, quarterback included, and the team was weighing everyone from draft prospects Matt Leinart and Vince Young to free agents like Daunte Culpepper and Josh McCown. Brees became their guy.
The Miami Dolphins wanted him too. Then-Dolphins coach Nick Saban was pushing to sign him, but doubts about the shoulder ran deep within the organization. Brees later put it plainly that he never sensed that hesitation from New Orleans, only from Miami.
Part of that came down to how doctors were reading the injury.
“The diagnosis coming off of that was, well, we think he’s got a 25% chance of ever coming back and playing again,” he said.
Saban stayed in his corner, but the Dolphins ultimately went with their medical staff’s recommendation. The Saints bet differently.
That bet paid off in a big way. Over 15 seasons in New Orleans, Brees led the league in completions and completion percentage repeatedly, topped the passing yards charts seven times, and threw for over 5,000 yards in five different seasons.
By the time he retired after the 2020 season, Brees had thrown for 80,358 yards and 571 touchdowns. His resume also included 13 Pro Bowl nods, a Super Bowl XLIV title and MVP award, two Offensive Player of the Year honors, and the 2009 NFL Player of the Year award.
People around the league stopped debating his Hall of Fame case years before it actually happened. That call finally came in 2026.
GM Mickey Loomis said it best.
“We all just expected he was going to go in in five years, first ballot, no questions asked,” Mickey said. “It’s not a surprise.”
Looking back on it now, Brees is still a little amazed at how everything worked out.
“How I ended up in New Orleans was just such an unlikely scenario,” he said. “And yet, it could not have been more perfect.”