Drew Brees, one of the greatest quarterbacks of our generation, will be one of five former NFL players inducted in to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in a little under two months time. He will join Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly, Roger Craig and Adam Vinatieri in Canton and become the 27th quarterback inducted into the HOF.

Over the next five weeks, we at EssentiallySports are going to be honoring these five inductees and building a memory wall on our weekly Huddle Overtime newsletter (which you can sign up for here). Every Wednesday for the next five weeks, you’ll receive and email with work from Daniel Rios and I, highlighting each of these player’s careers. And who better to start with than Drew Brees?

As a New Orleans Saints fan who was born in 2002, Brees is one of my idols, so this one means a lot to me. We’ll be honoring him a lot over the next few days, but today, I thought we’d start by seeing where he stacks up against some of the best quarterbacks of all time.

The Case For Drew Brees

Before we get into the rankings, let’s talk a little bit about Drew Brees’s greatness.

Brees was a second round pick by the San Diego Chargers back in 2001. He would spend five seasons in San Diego, where he’d play pretty well, but was never anything super special. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Brees would suffer a major injury to his throwing shoulder while trying to recover a fumble, and the Chargers decided to let him walk in free agency that offseason.

After a successful surgery, the Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints were the two contenders to sign Brees. Miami were the frontrunners, given the city of New Orleans was decimated by Hurricane Katrina and the Saints were coming off a 3-13 season and just fired their head coach, but the Dolphins’ doctors didn’t clear Brees’s shoulder, which resulted in him signing with the Saints.

In year one in New Orleans, Brees threw for a career-high 4,418 yards and 26 touchdowns while leading the Saints to a 10-6 record and an NFC Championship berth. Prior to that season, the Saints had never made it to the conference championship, but with the help of Sean Payton, Brees led them there in year one.

But that was just the beginning. The Saints would miss the playoffs the next two years, but would bounce back in 2009, winning 13 games and making it to their first ever Super Bowl. In that game, Brees out-dueled the legendary Peyton Manning to bring the Lombardi Trophy back to New Orleans for the first time in the franchise’s history.

While the Saints never made it back to the Super Bowl (although the absolutely should’ve in 2018, but we don’t have to get into that), Brees went on to become arguably the greatest statistical quarterback in NFL history. When Brees retired, he was the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards (80,358), completion percentage (67.7 percent), completions (7,142) and was second in passing touchdowns (571). Some guy named Tom Brady has since passed him in yards and completions, but hey, second isn’t so bad.

To further put his greatness into perspective, there have been just three quarterbacks in NFL history to throw for 5,000 yards in a single season multiple times. Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes have each done it twice, while Drew Brees has done it five times.

Brees also holds the NFL record for highest completion percentage in a single season (74.4 percent), most seasons leading the league in passing (7), most passing yards per game in a single season (342.3), most 400-yard passing games (16), highest completion percentage in a game with a minimum of 20 attempts (96.7 percent), most seasons with at least 30+ passing touchdowns (10), most 300-yard passing games (123), most 300-yard passing games in a season (13) and most consecutive 300-yard passing games (9). There’s more, too, but we would be here all day.

Statistically, we’ve never seen a quarterback as efficient as Drew Brees. That’s why he’s one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

All-Time Rankings

1. Tom Brady

I don’t think there’s any argument for the No. 1 spot on the all-time rankings list. As much as I disliked Tom Brady and actively rooted for his team to lose every single game during his career, even I have to admit he’s the greatest quarterback of all time.

Greatness can’t be defined in one way, though. Brady is the greatest winner of all time, but I don’t think he’s the best quarterback ever, per se. There are plenty of more talented quarterbacks out there, but when it came down to crunch time and just finding ways to win close games, there’s nobody even close to Brady.

2. Peyton Manning

Peyton Manning is one of the most prolific passers in NFL history. The former Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos quarterback holds the record for the most MVPs won with five, most First-Team All-Pros by a quarterback with seven and was named to the second-most Pro Bowls with 14.

To me, it’s a pretty clear 1-2. Brady is the GOAT and Manning is the baby GOAT. After these two, I think there are probably five or six guys that could be No. 3, but Brady and Manning have to be No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in my opinion.

3. Joe Montana

I’m not going to pretend I ever watched Joe Montana play, because I’m a 2000s baby, but he’s the original GOAT. Before Tom Brady, there was Joe Montana. He may not have been the most talented quarterback physically, but this guy just knew how to win football games, and might’ve had the calmest head of any player in NFL history.

Montana led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl titles while winning two MVPs and three Super Bowl MVPs. On top of that, he was named a First-Team All-Pro three times and a Pro Bowler eight times. And he did all of that in 12 seasons as a starter. Not bad for an old man.

4. Patrick Mahomes

Is it a bit ambitious to put Patrick Mahomes at No. 4 this early in his career? Probably, but all this guys does is win championships and MVPs.

Mahomes has played eight seasons as a starter and was won three Super Bowls, two MVPs, three Super Bowl MVPs and has two First-Team All-Pros to his name. On top of that, he’s already 33rd all time in passing yards (35,939) and 22nd all time in passing touchdowns (267). And he’s just 30 years old. He could play for another 10+ years if he stays healthy.

If Mahomes does indeed play another 10 seasons in the NFL, it’s very likely that he ends up finishing his career with 5+ championships and inside the top-five of pretty much every major quarterback statistic. Maybe it’s a bit premature to put him this high, but I think he’s earned it. If he retired today, he’s a first ballot Hall of Famer.

5. Drew Brees

This is where I have Drew Brees. Call it bias since I’m a Saints fan if you want to, but if you read that entire section about Brees’s accomplishments and still don’t think he’s a top-five quarterback, there’s something wrong with you. And let me ask you this: if Brees wasn’t robbed of a second Super Bowl by the NFL, how high would you have him?

I see way too many people putting Aaron Rodgers above Brees. I understand why the casual fan does it. There’s no doubt that Rodgers is the more talented quarterback (heck, he might be the most gifted quarterback of all time), but Brees did so much more with so much less than Rodgers.

I won’t pretend that either of these guys had as good of defenses as someone like Brady, but in 15 years as the starter for the Saints, Brees had nine defense rank 15th or worse in points per game allowed. He also only had three defenses ever rank inside the top-13.

Things weren’t a whole lot better for Rodgers, also having just three top-10 defenses in his career with the Packers, but on average, his defenses were much better with an average rank of 14.7 compared to Brees’s 18.3.

I’m not trying to hate on Rodgers, because he’s No. 6 on my list, but I’m just making my case for why Brees should be above him.

Drew Brees is a top-five quarterback of all time. He hardly ever had great teams around him and still managed to completely rewrite the NFL record book and revive the city of New Orleans after one of the most devastating natural disasters in this country’s history.  Hard to find many that did it better than he did.