Quote:
Originally posted by polarpi
I don't know, I gotta throw Drew Brees into the discussion - yes, he's not with a team that's always on the national radar (c'mon, 4-12 last season?), but without his leadership and presence on the football field this season, I don't think the Chargers would be sitting in first place in the AFC West and be 2 games ahead of the Broncos.
And that's MY personal .02 
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Unless they run the table out, he'll get only half-hearted recognition . . . the Chargers are having a great year, but they were always better than 4-12, and they were expected to be near the top of a weak division. McNabb's numbers are startlingly similar to Manning's (except for raw TD passes), up to and including ratio . . . Brees has a lot of passes to a tight end, and a tier-1 running back (arguably the best in football).
It's an interesting comparison, but things like "leadership" don't come into play for Brees against a guy who was, for years, the only real offensive weapon on his team, the unquestioned captain year-in and year-out, and who has kept TO happy and the rest of the team involved. The 'contract year' questions will also be there . . . why has he put it together now? Dollar signs? It's not really fair, but it carries some weight (ask Adrian Beltre's agent..).
However, the Chargers (right or wrong) are somewhat dogged by a weak schedule - a loss to the Falcons, who probably wouldn't even make the playoffs in the AFC, in one of their few chances to really beat a solid opponent looks bad. In fact, they haven't really beaten anybody yet, except a weirdly mediocre Broncos team - the Jets took them down early, and I don't consider the Panthers good at all.
Unless they beat Indy in a couple weeks, I don't think Brees deserves serious consideration. Last-place schedules exist for a reason, parity be damned.