Catching The Mark: Saints’ Receivers Make Life A Brees For Drew

Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints had one of the most prolific passing seasons ever, eclipsing Dan Marino’s 27-year-old single-season passing record in only 15 games. Brees is usually among the league’s passing leaders year in and year out but you don’t accomplish a feat like that without quality receivers which the Saints have in abundance.

The Saints’ receiving core is so good that Brees’ top five receivers all caught 50 or more passes this season. Tight end Jimmy Graham led the Saints with 99 receptions, Darren Sproles had 86, Marques Colston caught 80 passes, Lance Moore had 52 and Pierre Thomas caught 50.   

As you can see Brees loves to spread the ball around but having that many guys catch that many passes is just insane. Brees is also one of the best at putting the ball in places where only his receiver can catch it but what really sets him apart as a passer is his ability to place the ball where his receivers can gain yards after the catch.

The Saints were ranked second overall in yards-after-the-catch (YAC) with 2,534 of Brees’ record 5,476 passing yards coming after the catch. That’s over 46% of the total yards Brees passed for on the season. As accurate as Brees is and as good of a job he does putting his receivers in good positions, those YAC numbers are more a testament to the play-making abilities of his receivers.

The most dangerous guy in the group is running back and return man Darren Sproles. Sproles was a great offseason acquisition for New Orleans and ended the season ranked second in the league with 724 yards-after-the-catch. Sproles usually got the ball on screens and dump offs but his explosive speed and elusiveness allowed him to make big plays once he got the ball in his hands.

Graham and Thomas also ranked in the top 20 in yards-after-the-catch. Although not as explosive as Sproles, Thomas was also used on screens and dump offs coming out of the backfield. Graham on the other hand was just a matchup nightmare with his height, speed and athleticism. He’s too fast for linebackers and too tall for defensive backs to cover. He was also the only non-wide receiver to rank in the top ten in catches of over 25 yards.

Only two other teams had multiple players rank in the top 20 in YAC which just goes to further illustrate how big of a role the Saints’ receivers played in helping Brees break the record. On top of that, the Saints were the only team to have more than one player rank in the top ten in yards-per-game.

With Thomas, Sproles and Graham wreaking so much havoc on an opposing team’s defensive coverage, it just opens things up for when Brees does throw to his wide receivers. Speedsters like Devery Henderson, Lance Moore and Robert Meachem all had at least one touchdown over 40 yards during the season. Then teams still have find a way to keep the big 6’4” 225-pound, Marques Colston from using his size and craftiness to find open spots in the defense.

So as you can see, the Saints’ receiving core was very instrumental in helping Brees break Marino’s record. Now the challenge is to see if this group can help Brees carry New Orleans back to the Super Bowl. Catching a record is one thing but if they can catch fire in the playoffs then the New Orleans Saints could be celebrating their second championship in three years. 

Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and also writes for both The Penalty Flag and Outside The Redzone. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @Sportmentalist.