Saints reach out to Drew Brees for a possible return to the Black and Gold

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - With Trevor Siemian and Taysom Hill out of the lineup due to COVID, and Ian Book the only quarterback on the roster, the Saints brass left no stone unturned to find another viable option at quarterback.

“The Saints had an acute problem. They had to find a quarterback on short notice. So their challenge was kind of two-fold. One you had to find an available quarterback, which is not easy to do in late December. Most of the quarterbacks on the market would’ve signed with someone else already. Two, you would need to find someone that knows the Saints offense,” said FOX 8 Sports’ Jeff Duncan.

Well, there was one guy that’s well versed in the Black and Gold offense. He ran Sean Payton’s scheme for 15 years.

“It just made sense to make the first call to Drew Brees. Who obviously knows the offense. Could come in and quickly serve in kind of an emergency duty. Drew Brees seriously considered it. He actually, I heard, went out and threw some passes in his backyard to see how his arm felt. He talked with Brittany, consulted with his wife. She OK’d it. So it really came down to Drew Brees’s call if he wanted to do this or not. It was going to be just a one game situation. Because Taysom Hill and Trevor Siemian will likely be back off the COVID lists after one game. Really the only person that would consider something like that, would be Drew Brees,” said Duncan.

In the end, a Christmas miracle didn’t occur for the Saints.

“But ultimately I was told, he didn’t feel comfortable where he was at physically that he could execute certain passes at this stage of his life, not having trained to play quarterback. He didn’t feel comfortable, it would be a disservice to the Saints for him to come in. Because he was going to come in to start. He was not coming in to backup Ian Book,” said Duncan.

The Saints also reached out to NFL veterans Josh McCown and Philip Rivers according to Duncan.

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