Bell Tolls: This could be beginning of end for Drew Brees, Saints as contenders

It is fair to wonder where the New Orleans Saints are headed — with or without Drew Brees.

In the short term, they are headed to Carolina for what already amounts to a must-win game with their hopes pinned on the arm of journeyman backup Luke McCown.

In the long run, the Saints have the look of a team headed for more heartbreak, far from providing Brees with the support that it will take to win another championship.

While Brees, 36, recovers from an ailing rotator cuff that will cause him to miss a game due to injury for the first time in career, the Saints are contending with another type of pain: the reality that they may no longer be a Super Bowl contender.

They are staring 0-3 right between the eyes, and you know what 0-3 means. Goodbye season. Since the current playoff format was established in 1990, just three teams rallied from 0-3 to make the postseason. The 1998 Buffalo Bills the last to circle such a wagon.

So for a Week 3 tilt, this is about as big as it gets for the Saints — who couldn’t even handle Tampa Bay last weekend at the Superdome, which is no longer a house of horrors for visitors.

But this is also a sobering reminder that not even Brees can be an elite quarterback forever.

That’s not to suggest the injury, which apparently occurred as Brees was yanked while in the pocket last Sunday, signals some sudden physical deterioration that spells the beginning of the end.

He’ll be back, although the timetable is unlcear, despite Brees and coach Sean Payton flirting until Friday with the idea that the quarterback would play against the Panthers.

“He’s been like Superman,” former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert, now a popular radio personality on WWL, told Paste BN Sports. “If you’re a Saints fan, you want Drew Brees to come back and kick butt. But the pressure is really on the organization and how to build around him.”

Last season, Brees tied Ben Roethlisberger for the NFL lead with 4,952 passing yards, the Saints had the NFL’s top-ranked offense and they were eighth in scoring. But they still didn’t even finish .500 (7-9). With Brees’ 17 interceptions, the lack of a running game and a leaky defense, the quarterback was the man with too much pressure to bear.

If the first two games were any indication, it will not be a quick fix.

Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis made offseason moves to emphasize toughness, particularly on the O-line, which conceivably will facilitate the type of consistent rushing attack that supported Brees during the 2009 Super Bowl run.

But the Rob Ryan-coordinated defense looks as bad as it did last year. And there’s a big hole in the offense: No Jimmy Graham.

The Saints upgraded the middle of the O-line by obtaining center Max Unger from the Seattle Seahawks, but it was an addition-by-subtraction move that could haunt them for years because it took away Brees’ most lethal red zone weapon in Graham.

Here’s a hunch: It is tougher to find a game-changing matchup problem like Graham than it is to find a savvy technician in the trenches.

The philosophical shift could ultimately work, but it may take some time. And there are no guarantees. Although Brees has said he wants to play into his 40s, the clock is ticking nonetheless.

But fat chance the Saints would do something drastic like part ways with Brees.

Sure, he’d command a draft start-up kit as more than a few teams would love to get their hands on him. Put Brees on a team with a big-time defense like, say, the Jets and Texans, and they are instant contenders.

Yet the Saints would probably take thatlong to reject a trade offer. The San Francisco 49ers dealt Joe Montana near the end of his career. But it’s not like the Saints have Steve Young waiting in the wings.

And just think of the PR disaster the Saints would incur by parting ways with Brees, whose deep connection to the community was first established in the post-Katrina rebound.

No, even with Brees counting $27.4 million against next year’s cap, it’s still about building a contender around the star quarterback.

Yes, the pressure is indeed on the organization, as Hebert suggests.

More specifically, looking down the road — with all due respect to the potential for a miraculous turnaround this season — the pressure is on the braintrust to hit on their personnel moves.

At the moment, the Saints are carrying an NFL-high $30.8 million in salary cap dead money. At least $16 million in dead money is already on the books for next year. This largely reflects investments that backfired. And a spotty draft record is under fire, too. This is as good a time as any to take stock of this.

Because with or without Brees, the Saints need a few changes for the better.

Other items of interest as Week 3 rolls on …

Who’s hot: Tom Brady. Maybe it’s the Deflategate effect. When the Patriots were slammed for Spygate in 2007, Brady set an NFL record with 50 TD passes and led New England to the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history. Now perhaps he’s similarly fueled to make the rest of the NFL pay for the discomfort of the offseason drama. Brady is on fire, heading into Sunday’s game against Jacksonville. He threw 91 passes in the first two games — the most-ever during that span without a pick —  and is the NFL leader in yards (754) and TD passes (7). And just think: Brady might be just warming up for a season of vengeance.

Pressure’s on: Chip Kelly. The big offseason moves are backfiring, and now Kelly’s woeful offense must contend at the Meadowlands against a big-play Jets defense that is the first unit since the 1992 Steelers to force five turnovers in each of its first two games. Kelly is hard-pressed to reverse the trend involving reigning NFL rushing champ DeMarco Murray, who has flopped with 11 rushing yards through two games (0.5 yards per carry). Murray’s been dealing with a hamstring issue this week, but another ailment exists with the manner in which he fits in Kelly’s scheme. Of Murray’s 21 rushes, 18 have come while in the shotgun formation — which was never Murray's ticket to success. Murray excelled in Dallas’ power schemes. With the Eagles, he’s been trapped behind the line. Kelly points to his O-line’s ineffective blocking, but it may take a different approach to get the most out of Murray and ignite what’s been the NFL’s worst rushing attack. It won’t be easy this week with New York’s stout D-line looming as a matchup nightmare.

Rookie watch: Todd Gurley. This looks like the week the NFL’s best running back prospect since Adrian Peterson will finally make his debut for the Rams, completing his comeback from a torn left ACL that cut short his fabulous career at Georgia. Gurley, drafted 10th overall, fully participated in practices this week and split the first-team reps with Tre Mason. Although coach Jeff Fisher says it will be a “game-time decision,” that sounds like gamesmanship. Fisher was pleased with Gurley’s progress in practice, and his 27th-ranked rushing attack needs a punch. St. Louis is averaging 3.7 yards per carry, and the leading rusher is a slot receiver, Tavon Austin (8 rushes, 57 yards). The Rams caught a break, too, as Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier (15 tackles vs. the 49ers) is ruled out with a shoulder injury.

Next man up: Brandon Weeden. Although just-acquired vet Matt Cassel looms as an alternative, Weeden is being banked on to drive Dallas’ offense for several weeks while Tony Romo heals from a broken collarbone. With another year in Scott Linehan’s system, Weeden has to be better than he was in his emergency work last year — which included him being flummoxed by Arizona’s blitzes and suffocating coverage in his only start. This will be a more substantial test, with the Cowboys trying to hang onto first place while missing Romo and Dez Bryant for several weeks. Add the offseason departure of Murray, and it’s quite the makeover. But at least Weeden will have time to throw behind the NFL’s best O-line, and his closeout work at Philadelphia – 7-for-7, with a 42-yard TD pass — was encouraging. Still, the Cowboys are 6-9 over the years without Romo. And with the unbeaten Falcons coming Sunday with an active, overhauled defense under new coach Dan Quinn, Weeden is trying to snap the longest active losing streak, eight games, by an NFL quarterback.

Key matchup: Kam Chancellor vs. Jimmy Clausen. The rash of quarterback injuries has resulted in a perilous proposition for Clausen, filling in as Jay Cutler nurses a hamstring injury for the Chicago Bears. He draws the Seahawks in their home opener with the return of Chancellor, the all-pro safety who ended his holdout. It’s expected that the Seahawks will ease the Legion of Boom’s versatile thumper back into the flow. Too bad Clausen, 1-10 career record as a starter, won’t have such a luxury against a team with an 0-2 chip on its shoulder. This could be an ugly blowout.

Stomach for an upset? Indianapolis at Tennessee. The Colts haven’t lost to the Titans since 2011, but conditions are ripe for the streak to be snapped at seven games when considering the struggles of the Andrew Luck-armed offense. Through two games, Indianapolis has scored an NFL-low 21 points — with no points in the first half. Last season, Indy ranked sixth in the NFL in averaging 28.6 points per game. Luck’s NFL-high six turnovers is an issue, but coach Chuck Pagano knows as well as anyone that it’s not all on the quarterback. Luck has been blitzed on nearly half of his dropbacks, with miserable support from his O-line. Now comes a matchup against a unit inspired by new defensive guru Dick LeBeau, the father of the zone blitz. Sunday’s game also marks Marcus Mariota’s home debut. It’s a trap waiting to happen.

Did you notice? The yellow flags have been flying at a record pace. In two weeks, 504 penalties were accepted — the highest number through two weeks in NFL history. That’s some sloppy football. Last weekend, 13 teams had double-digit penalties — with seven of them pulling out victories. The most egregious example? Dallas was flagged 18 times for 142 yards at Philadelphia and still won.

Stat’s the fact: Browns receiver/returner Travis Benjamin has scored four touchdowns of at least 50 yards, the first player to achieve that feat during the first two weeks of a season since the legendary Jim Brown in 1963. Three of Benjamin’s scores came on long passes from Johnny Manziel. Now let’s see if that pattern continues as Cleveland, hosting Oakland on Sunday, re-inserts Josh McCown into the starting lineup after he cleared concussion protocol.

Fantasy vs. Reality: Marion Motley Crew is off to a 2-0 start in the 20-team Super League, with Rob Gronkowski leading the way. Interestingly, with two flex slots in play, what was originally lamented as a draft-day mishap when desired big-play receivers were taken off the board, now looks like a blessing as MMC carries four tight ends (Gronk, Eric Ebron, Scott Chandler, Gavin Escobar) on a 15-man roster. In reality, the value of tight ends is blowing up with the 36 TDs scored by tight ends across the league the most ever through two weeks.

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