He sat behind Doug Flutie his rookie year, '01. His first year starting was '02, he wasn't Top 10 in anything and overall was probably only a borderline Top 20 QB...
Year 3, 2003, he was benched for old ass Doug Flutie, wasn't mentioned anywhere near even a league average starter. The Chargers were about ready to punt on Brees, if you recall, because thru 3 years he was looking to be a below-average pro quarterback. Let's not get revisionist here, the Chargers don't draft Rivers in '04 if Brees looked the part his first three years....
He didn't...
The year you're talking about is '04, which was his breakout year considering the pressure on him from Rivers in the wings. I do think you can make the argument that in 2004 he had a borderline Top 5 season, but it was the first year of his 4-year career he even played like a Top 5 guy. Keeping context, three mediocre years to one great year, he was bordering on elite that year, kind of how Dak is this year...
Year 5 was 2005, I think it was comfortable to say he was a Top 10 QB, particularly given the fact he put together back-to-back winning seasons and back-to-back elite, Top 10 level play. So I'll correct myself, I said he wasn't elite in San Diego, that isn't true. He was somewhere in that 7-10 range as a QB heading into 2006, highly regarded as a big free agent...
I guess my point was never in San Diego was he as good as he became in New Orleans. He didn't become rocket fuel Brees until he got to New Orleans with Payton, that '06 run to the NFC title game is when he really elevated as probably the best QB in the game outside of Manning and Brady, and added to that in the coming years. There are years in New Orleans he was debatable the best QB in football, there was never a year like that in San Diego...
So that was my point, but I misspoke and stand corrected!
