New Orleans Saints wuarterback Drew Brees

Post-Practice Media Availability

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Your thoughts on not being picked for the Pro Bowl?

"I haven't seen the list or anything, but I'm sure that there were a lot of deserving candidates there. It's really not something that I'm too concerned about. Listen it's a great honor when you are chosen, but a lot of times that comes along with winning and we obviously didn't win enough games. I put that on myself. That's something as I look at my career and the time I have left that's really all I want to do. I just want to win."

Your teammates said how can (Drew Brees) he lead the league in yards, completion percentage and touchdowns and not make the Pro Bowl.

"Again I'm not worried about it. I would love to see guys like Max (Unger), who I think is extremely deserving, Cam (Jordan) and Mark Ingram's having an awesome year. I mean there are so many guys that deserved that, but listen there's a lot of great players in this league too. A lot of times it does come along with teams that are playoff-bound and have won a lot of games."

What does winning your 100th game as a Saint mean to you?

"I guess that's pretty cool because at the end of the day that's the number that really matters wins and championships. You have to play a long time in one place in order to get that done. Just makes me reflect back on all the teammates, all the people that have been a part of those wins. Pretty cool."

What are the challenges of playing a team twice in three weeks?

"Yeah there is a level of familiarity there, obviously being a divisional opponent and the fact that that game plan is somewhat fresh in our minds still, but you're still tweaking things and it's a short week with Christmas and everything. Just getting the body right, getting the practice time in and get the game plan down and going out and hopefully putting together a better performance than we did last time."

That last game against the Buccaneers was as good as a defense has ever played against you. Do you think it was the game plan?

"They played well and we did not execute well. The combination of those things. We had a lot of penalties, had a lot of turnovers. We didn't score when we had chances and you combine all those things and that doesn't really give you a chance to win."

Did you walk away from that game knowing what you had to fix?

"I know that especially with some of the turnovers those are mistakes that can't (and) should not be made and certainly things that I can correct. (I've) Played long enough to know how to correct those things."

How much pride do you take in completions, completion percentage and accuracy?

"Marty Schottenheimer used to tell me you'll never go broke taking a profit. There's times where you want to push the ball down the field and be aggressive, but completion after completion turns out to be a good thing. Positive plays get you into more efficient positions on third down, which allows you to keep the chains moving, which allows you to score points. All those things are related. I just care about being efficient, getting the most out of each play, whatever it may be. Sometimes, the best play is taking a sack or throwing it away. That doesn't show up in the stat sheet. But sometimes that's the best thing that could have happened in that situation. That's why you can't always look at stats."

Being here for Marques Colston's rookie year, what do you think of Michael Thomas on the cusp of breaking some of his team rookie records?

"It's kind of interesting. Marques' rookie season, I would say both those guys playing the same position, that X receiver. I feel like they've done it in different ways. Both of them have been highly productive. Mike's that guy that and I'd say for Marques too, every week you just are broadening the scope of what they can do. You see something new in the gameplan for them that hasn't been there in the past, because they're continuing to soak it up and learn, that's the exciting part. You feel like you are scratching the surface. Every week you have an opportunity to grow that development and that chemistry."

How has it been done different between Marques and Mike?

"I've never really tried to compare the two to be honest with you. All I can say is they're both highly productive and there are things both of them can do really well, some better than others."

While it's tough to label the Buccaneers as a rebuilding team do you put yourselves in that label as well?

"No, I wouldn't give them that label. I think they have some core pieces in place like we do. It's just a matter of finding a way to win some of those games that put you in the position to win the division championship and go to the playoffs. They kind of got hot at the right time. They were winners of five games in a row until they lost to Dallas. Dallas is obviously at the top of the NFC right now. They're playing as good football as anybody right now, the Bucs."