New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees - Post-practice Media Availability - Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Talk about having Brandon Marshall here. What do you think?
"I am excited about him. I have known him for a long time. Our paths have crossed doing a bunch of things off the field and (we) played (in) a pro bowl together, when it was in Hawaii. I don't know how many years ago (it was exactly) but I have known of him for a long time. I heard a lot of good things about him and I'm a fan of his just watching him on film. He's a very smart veteran guy who is very fluid. I have seen him in a lot of different offenses really be successful both as an outside receiver and as an inside receiver. I think he is very versatile. (There are) A lot of things he can do as a big target, so (he has a) big catching radius and just watching him today that just was pretty impressive. I'm excited about having him."

Do you think he has a lot of gas left in the tank?
"Oh yes. Absolutely. Yes. We talked for a while today and he is excited to be here. We are excited to have him."

It's usually a matter of how fast a guy can kind of assimilate to the offense and how fast they can pick it up?
"I think the good thing about a veteran guy is that the majority of time these are concepts that he's seen before and done before. They might be called something slightly different. Really then it just becomes a verbiage thing and maybe a little bit of memorization as to what we call it. But as far as how the route is run, where the hole is in the defense, why you're calling the route, what do you look forward to the adjustments off of it. These are things that a veteran receiver like him who has a ton of experience knows." 

Do you think Brandon (Marshall) never playing in a postseason game had any effect on his decision to come here?
"I didn't know that. I'd like to think that people look at our offense and what we're able to do with our skill position players and it's an exciting offense to play in and you have the chance to be successful and the ball gets spread around from week to week and everybody gets opportunities. So for a guy like him who's a veteran guy who at this stage in his career just wants to be part of something like that. Yes, I'm sure that has something to do with it."

How good has Terron Armstead been on your blindside?
"He's been great. He's been great really, the whole unit, but Terron, when he's when he's in there, he's a difference maker."

What about his injury hurts you guys?
"Of course, you'd love to have everybody healthy but if they're not then I'm confident in the guys who would step in and be able to do the job and again as a unit, those guys are always working together and the things you do from a gameplan perspective as you think about who's going to be in what position, so (I am) confident that whoever we step out there (with) would be good to go." 

Is it important to have a guy like (Jermon) Bushrod to step into that role? Someone who has been here before?
"Absolutely. A veteran guy, played a ton of football. He was starting left tackle here for a long time. Right? So for him to step in. He's ready for that, we're used to that and we're ready to go."  

I know wins are the most important statistic to you, but as a quarterback is there another that is important to you such as passer rating or others?
"There are a lot of those things you mentioned that equate to winning football, right? They probably go hand-in-hand with good decision making, right? Good productivity. Scoring points. Winning games, right? So at the end of the day the objective's to win, but you have to understand what helps you get to that point, right? All those things are factors." 

You're having one of the best seasons for a quarterback. Do you think about that at all?
"No, just playing ball. Just trying to be a good decision maker knowing that good things happen when I am (making good decisions)." 

How are you completing 90% of your passes to Michael Thomas?
"He knows when he gets open I throw it to him. That goes for anybody, that's the job of the quarterback right? Find the open guy and throw it to him and give him a ball he can catch and do something with it after the catch. Mike deserves a ton of credit. He's as competitive as they come. He's a game-changer and he knows that I'm counting on him and he knows when I look at him and he's the guy. He's going to get open. He'll fight like crazy to do that. He's a great player and great players have that gene, that makeup, where when it's time to roll, it's time to roll and they feel like they're uncoverable. It's a little bit of an invincible feeling. I love to watch him work during the week and in practice. What you see on gameday is what we see in practice." 

Do you think back at all to last year and what could have been if you guys played the Eagles if you had defeated the Vikings?
"It is done and gone. I thought about it back then, but not now. It is a new season, new team. Here we are now, we're playing now." 

Is there extra juice playing the Super Bowl Champions?
"Sure, they are a prideful group. They know how to win. You look across and they are as good a front four as we will play and as a defense they have a ton of playmakers over there. We have our work cut out for us and we know what type of game it's going to be. We know they're coming in hungry for a win. Both teams have a lot to play for." 

Does having so many personnel groupings to use play a big part in the success of the offense?
"I think it makes it hard on a defense. The defense sits there and tries to gameplan how they are going to defend you when certain people are on the field. It just becomes problematic when you are so multiple with the things you can do and whether it's the personnel groups we put on the field or what we do with formations or where we're putting guys and the tempo in which we play. All those are things that can work to our advantage if we execute correctly."

What is so hard the year after the Super Bowl from your experience in 2010 and looking at some of Philadelphia's struggles?
"Because everybody gets better. The slate's wiped clean at the start of that next season and even though you may have the same players, you have to reestablish your identity and then let's be honest, (with) any Super Bowl team, the ball bounces your way at times when it could've gone the other direction and it's hard to replicate that. You have got to go out and you've got to earn it all over again and you got to have the ball bounce your way again and you've got to reestablish your identity again and stay healthy again and all those things that equated to you winning it in the first place. It's difficult."

Do you think that you guys are getting a few of those lucky bounces?
"I hope so. I mean I think so, as I look to games that we've won, we've won some close games here right and you could point to one play here, one play there that makes the difference and had that play gone a different direction, then maybe it would have been the same result. Yeah, but man when you build confidence and momentum you begin to feel and believe that you can make every one of those plays." 

What do you think you've done this year to limit the amount of interceptions you've thrown?
"Just good decision-making and that's pretty much it."

Nothing has really changed with the offense?
"No." 

Is momentum a hard thing to get as a team or player, but once you get it, it is hard to get off of that train?
"I mean it's just like the ebb and flow of the game right, within the framework of a game. There's going to be kind of ups and downs and the other team grabs momentum for a little bit and then you've got to find a way to make a play to get it back. Yeah, I mean a lot of this game is confidence and momentum." 

When Cincinnati was going to go for it on the second series and a false start penalty set them back and forced them to punt instead, was that the ultimate sign of respect from the other offense?
"I like to think so, but Sean Payton would do. All the time, regardless who were playing, it's just the mentality that you're going in with. Common sense might tell you that hey, you have more of a chance of going for it on fourth down in a 50/50 situation if you know that the points are at a premium right. The touchdowns are at a premium, sustaining drives are at a premium."