In his career, Brees was a two-time AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year, named to 13 Pro Bowls, five AP All-Pro teams, was the AP 2004 NFL Comeback Player of the Year, the 2006 co-recipient of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year and the 2007 winner of the PFWA George Halas Award (given to an NFL player, coach or staff member who overcomes the most adversity to succeed). Over 20 seasons, he appeared in 287 regular season games with 286 starts and completed 7,142-of-10,551 passes (67.7 pct.) for 80,358 yards, 571 touchdowns and a 98.7 passer rating. He set numerous NFL passing records and retired as the league’s all-time leader in passing yardage (80,358), completions (7,142) passing attempts (10,551), ranked second in career completion percentage (67.7 pct.) and touchdown passes (571) and fifth in passer rating (98.7).
Brees set marks for touchdown passes in a game (seven, tied with seven other players), completions in a season (471, 2016- since broken), completion percentage in a season (74.4, 2018), completion percentage in a game (96.7, 12/16/19), 300-yard passing games in a season (13, 2011), consecutive games with at least 300 yards passing (nine, twice), most passing yards in a four-season span (20,767, 2011-14), most passing yards in a five-season span (25,637, 2011-15), most passing yards in a six-season span (30,845, 2011-16), most seasons leading the league in passing yardage (seven), consecutive games with a touchdown pass (54, 2009-12), games with four-plus touchdown passes (37), games with four touchdown passes and zero interceptions (25), games with five-plus touchdown passes (11), consecutive (nine) seasons with at least 30 touchdown passes, career 300-yard passing games (123), career 350-yard passing games (63) and career 400-yard passing games (16). The Austin, Texas native retired holding four of the top five most accurate seasons in league history and threw for 5,000 yards an NFL-record five times, a feat no other player has accomplished more than twice.
Starting all 18 postseason contests, he appeared in, Brees completed 481-of-721 passes (66.7 pct.) for 5,366 yards with 37 touchdowns and a 97.1 passer rating. In his finest postseason moments in the 2009 playoffs, he completed 72-of-102 passes (70.6 pct.) for 732 yards, eight touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 117.0 passer rating en route to the Super Bowl XLIV title. In Super Bowl XLIV vs. the Indianapolis Colts, Brees completed 32-of-39 passes (82.1 pct.) for 288 yards with two touchdowns, zero picks and a 114.5 passer rating, winning Most Valuable Player honors. In the contest, Brees completed 18 of his last 19 passes and final 10 attempts. He is one of only eight quarterbacks to have 200 passing yards, two touchdown passes and a 70% completion percentage in a Super Bowl win.
Brees’ record as a starter for the Saints was 151-94 (.616) in the regular season and postseason combined, easily making him the winningest signal-caller in franchise history. Posting a 144-85 (.629) record in the regular season and postseason with Sean Payton as his head coach, the Payton-Brees head coach/starting quarterback combination is tied for second in total wins all-time in NFL history. Brees is the holder of virtually every passing record in club record books with his 15 years of service and 228 regular season starts for the Black and Gold, both the highest totals in the team’s history at the time. From 2006-20, Brees led the NFL with 68,010 passing yards, 491 touchdown passes, 8,742 attempts, 6,017 completions, a 68.8 completion percentage, 116 games with at least 300 yards passing, 16 with at least 400 and 518 completions of 25 yards or more.
Brees is one of 11 players from the Saints organization to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He joins linebacker Rickey Jackson (2009), tackle William Roaf (2012), kicker Morten Andersen (2017) and linebacker Sam Mills (2022) as honorees who spent most of their playing career with the Saints.
