Drew Brees says he would have played three more NFL seasons if not for right arm injuries

Former New Orleans Saints quarterback and likely future Hall of Famer Drew Brees has now been out of the NFL for three seasons, having retired after the 2020 campaign. But if it were up to him, he’d first be stepping away right now. 

“Honestly, man, if my right arm was still working, I probably would’ve played another three years,” Brees said, via ESPN. “My body feels great. My body can play, my right arm can’t. Unfortunately that’s what kind of forced me to step away. And it was time, too.”

Brees dealt with arm and shoulder issues especially over the latter portion of his career. They at first sapped his arm strength, and, in his post-playing career, his ability to throw the ball at all with that arm.

“I can drop a dime like 30 yards, left-handed,” Brees said. “Unfortunately you need a little bit more than that to compete at this level. I throw left-handed with the boys, with everything. Anything below my shoulder, below the waist, racket sports, golf, that’s fine.”

Given that reality, it’s obviously not surprising that Brees decided to call it a career. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t think about how things would have worked if he did continue playing. 

“At the end of the day, it’s like, how capable … am I to do the job, right? I would’ve run QB draws, I would’ve done whatever,” Brees said. “I would’ve done some veer option. We would’ve pulled out all the stops. I was ready. Pull out the high school playbook.”

Brees was obviously never known as a particularly mobile quarterback, as he averaged just 2.6 rushing yards per game during his carer, and never averaged more than 8.1 per game in a full season. So, it seems pretty unlikely that an option-style offense would have worked with him at the helm. 

As it is, Brees playd 20 years, completed 7,142 passes for 80,358 yards and 571 touchdowns. He won Offensive Player of the Year twice and made 13 Pro Bowls and five All-Pro teams (one first, four second), and he won New Orleans a Super Bowl. He’ll go into the Hall of Fame as soon as he’s eligible. Not being able to add three more years to that resume obviously still weighs on him, but his career was plenty good without them.