New Orleans Saints quarterback Chase Daniel played an essential role on the night that Drew Brees broke Dan Marino’s passing yardage record. Daniel was the go-to guy on the sideline for teammates who wanted to know how close Brees was to the record.

Or as Brees often calls him, he was “Statman.”

During the season, Daniel said he always kept up with the various records that Brees and the team were chasing, since he’s so active on Twitter and follows various media reports.

“Then he’ll always come up to me and say, ‘Do you want to know what record you just set,’” Brees said, chiding Daniel from the next locker.

Daniel said he found out how many yards Brees needed during halftime of the Saints’ Week 16 game against the Atlanta Falcons, then he kept the running tally in his head after that. He said teammates kept coming up to him to find out the target number.

Brees outed Daniel as the team’s mathematician during pregame interviews last week with FOX, which then revealed the details during last week’s broadcast.

For the second consecutive week, fans have voted Saints quarterback Drew Brees the FedEx Air player of the week. With the prize goes another $2,000 contribution in Brees’ name to local Junior Achievement chapters.

Brees broke Dan Marino’s NFL single season passing yardage record last Monday night as the Saints clinched the NFC South title with a 45-16 whipping of the Atlanta Falcons. For the night, Brees completed 23 of 39 passes for 307 yards and four touchdowns.

Regardless of whether the Saints head back to Green Bay for the NFC championship game in January, they will definitely make a return trip to Lambeau Field later in 2012.

All 16 of the Saints’ 2012 opponents have been locked in now that they have clinched the NFC South division. In addition to the 14 games that were predetermined for next season, the Saints now know that they will play at Green Bay and host San Francisco, based on where those teams finished in their divisions this season.

The dates and times won’t be released until next spring. But here is the complete list of New Orleans’ 2012 opponents:

Home: Atlanta, Carolina, Tampa Bay, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, Kansas City and San Diego.

Away: Atlanta, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Dallas, the New York Giants, Denver and Oakland.

The Green Bay trip will be unique because the Saints could play three times at Lambeau Field within 16 months. But those quirks come up from time to time in the NFL schedule, especially when playoff games are involved. It would be similar to when the Saints played at Chicago in three straight years from 2006 to 2008.

The other quirk is that the pattern has changed with the Saints’ AFC West opponents. Starting last season, the NFL changed its rotation regarding West Coast trips so that teams would no longer have to play at San Diego and Oakland in the same year (or at San Francisco and Seattle in the same year). That’s why the Saints are scheduled to play at Denver instead of at San Diego in 2012.

INGRAM SUFFERS SETBACK: Saints tailback Mark Ingram missed practice Thursday after suffering a setback with his lingering turf toe injury, according to Coach Sean Payton. Ingram has missed the past three games with the injury, and it now appears he could miss the remainder of the season.

“We’ve just got to wait until it’s healthy. It’s real simple,” Payton said.

There still is time for Ingram to return to the lineup if needed. But based on the way his replacement, Chris Ivory, has performed the past three weeks, it seems unlikely the Saints would change after Ingram has missed so much time.

Ingram returned to practice last week, participating only in individual drills. Then Wednesday, he participated in team drills on a limited basis for the first time. But Payton said he aggravated the injury during Wednesday’s practice.

Receiver Lance Moore (hamstring) and tight end John Gilmore (toe) also missed practice Thursday, making them questionable for Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers.

Safety Malcolm Jenkins (neck) and linebacker Jonathan Vilma (knee) returned to practice on a limited basis.

SPROLES, MORSTEAD CHASE HISTORY: New Orleans’ offense isn’t the only unit rewriting the NFL’s record book. The Saints set the league record for most touchbacks on kickoffs in a season with 62 so far. Now tailback and kick returner Darren Sproles and punter Thomas Morstead are within range of breaking NFL records as they head into Sunday’s regular-season finale against Carolina.

Sproles has a league-leading 2,528 all-purpose yards, the combined total of his rushing, receiving, kick returns and punt returns. He needs 163 yards to break the season NFL record of 2,690 set by the Tennessee Titans’ Derrick Mason in 2000.

Sproles needs 120 all-purpose yards to break the franchise record of 2,647 set by Michael Lewis in 2002. Lewis’ total ranks second in NFL history.

Asked how long he has known about his record pace, Sproles said, “since just now when you said it.”

“That would be cool, but it’s not on my mind,” Sproles said. “That’s not my main focus. My main focus is just to help this team win. And that’s all that’s on my mind when I go out there and play.”

Sproles has 563 yards rushing, 681 yards receiving, 1,035 yards on kickoff returns, 249 yards on punt returns and nine touchdowns.

Sproles said he always admired all-purpose stars such as former New York Giants dynamo Dave Meggett. But in his heart, he’s a tailback first and foremost.

“But my all-time favorite is Barry Sanders,” Sproles said. “That’s who I always tried to be like.”

Morstead, meanwhile, is well aware of his shot at the NFL’s all-time mark for net punting average. That’s the number that all NFL punters and special teams coverage units care most about because it takes into account return yardage.

The current record-holder, Shane Lechler, set the record with a net average of 43.85 yards for the Raiders in 2009. Morstead’s net average this season is 43.1 yards. And the San Francisco 49ers’ Andy Lee has a net average of 43.5.

Morstead broke the NFL record for touchbacks last week, though that tally is inflated a bit because the NFL pushed kickoffs up 5 yards to the 35 this season and because the high-scoring Saints kick off so often. The net punting record would be even more special, though.

“That would be really cool,” Morstead said. “We have a chance. We’ve had a couple real good games in a row.”

MORE MARKS FOR BREES: As you may have heard, Saints quarterback Drew Brees set the NFL record for passing yards in a single season Monday night. But that’s not all he did.

With his 307 yards and four touchdowns against the Atlanta Falcons, Brees moved up the all-time NFL charts in both categories. He passed Johnny Unitas on the yardage chart and now ranks 12th all-time with 40,353 yards passing. He passed both Joe Montana and Vinny Testaverde on the touchdown chart and now ranks ninth all-time with 276 passing touchdowns.

Brees also remains on pace to break the NFL records for completions and completion percentage in a season. He needs 11 completions to break the mark of 450, which was set by Peyton Manning last season. His completion percentage of 70.74 ranks ahead of his NFL record of 70.62 set in 2009.

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Staff writer Jeff Duncan contributed to this report. Mike Triplett can be reached at mtriplett@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3405.

On the back of his 4-touchdown performance Monday night against the Atlanta Falcons, a game in which he broke Dan Marino’s NFL record for passing yardage in a season, Saints quarterback Drew Brees is the NFC’s offensive player of the week, the league announced Wednesday.

In a press release, the NFL outline some of Brees’ accomplishments:

Recapping the New Orleans Saints’ 45-16 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Saints clinched the NFC South title and remain in contention for the No. 2 seed in the playoff race.

DID YOU SEE?

MARQUES COLSTON

Once again, when the NFL’s Pro Bowl rosters are announced today, the Saints’ sure-handed receiver will be left out.

He’ll probably finish as a distant alternate behind players with flashier statistics from offenses that don’t spread the ball around as much as the Saints do, but it’s quite possible Colston is the best player in the league who has never been invited to the Pro Bowl. In another offense, he might catch 90-plus passes with double-digit touchdowns.

Colston surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the fifth time in his six-year career with another typical performance in Monday night’s 45-16 victory over the visiting Atlanta Falcons — seven catches, 81 yards and a touchdown. He especially was clutch early, catching four passes for third-down conversions in the first half, including an 8-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

“That’s my role,” Colston said in his usual humble fashion. “I think everyone in the receiving corps has their role, so I just try to play it to the best of my ability.”

JIMMY GRAHAM

Graham, on the other hand, will undoubtedly earn an invite to the Pro Bowl, which will make him the Saints’ first skill-position player to do so since receiver Joe Horn in 2004.

Graham had a pedestrian game by his standards Monday night, catching four passes for 42 yards. But his 9-yard touchdown late in the second quarter was one of the best of his young career. He leaped high over cornerback Brent Grimes to make the grab, showing his old power-forward form from his basketball days at the University of Miami. That was Graham’s 10th touchdown catch of the season, which set a franchise record for tight ends. He has a chance to set a NFL record against the visiting Carolina Panthers on Sunday. He’s 67 yards behind Kellen Winslow, who set the NFL record for tight ends in 1980 with 1,290 receiving yards. However, New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is 6 yards ahead of Graham and could also break that record.

After the Falcons game, Graham gave praise to quarterback Drew Brees, insisting that he never wants to play for another quarterback.

“He only makes me look better,” Graham said.

HOW THE GAME WAS WON

The Saints’ offense was in fine form, converting its first nine third-down attempts en route to a 28-10 lead in the third quarter.

But once again, the Saints’ defense came up equally big.

After allowing Atlanta to score 10 points on its first two drives, the Saints’ defense went into shut-down mode. They held the Falcons scoreless on their next four drives, and then forced them to settle for field goals on the next two drives. After New Orleans’ offense then stalled, the defense came up with the biggest play yet — a forced fumble by linebacker Scott Shanle that was returned 30 yards for a touchdown by safety Malcolm Jenkins in the fourth quarter.

Jenkins had a great effort, coming up with two huge hits earlier in the game that led to punts.

Also big for the Saints was second-year defensive end Junior Galette, who made a rare start and came up with two hits against quarterback Matt Ryan that led to drive-killing incompletions and a third that forced a holding call.

LOOKING AHEAD

REMATCH IN TWO WEEKS?

The Saints finally put together a convincing victory against their rivals, snapping a streak of four games in this series that were decided by three points.

And for their reward? They’ll probably face the Falcons again in less than two weeks at Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

The Saints (12-3) are the third seed in the NFC, and the Falcons (9-6) are the sixth seed, which would set up a first-round playoff rematch. New Orleans can move up if it defeats the Panthers and the San Francisco 49ers lose at St. Louis. The Falcons can move up if they win and the Detroit Lions lose at Green Bay (questionable since the Packers might rest their starters).

If the rematch happens, it won’t be a “gimme” for the Saints. The Falcons are a bona-fide playoff team, but please spare me the argument that it’s “tough to beat the same team three times.” That’s bogus, based on historical data and common sense. It would be even tougher for the Falcons to come to the Superdome and beat a Saints team that has proven to be the better team twice.

DILEMMA FOR PAYTON?

The Saints are alive for the No. 2 seed, but they could consider resting their starters against Carolina.

Last season, Coach Sean Payton admitted that his biggest regret was playing his starters in Week 17 when New Orleans had a slim chance of earning the No. 1 seed. As a result, key players Graham, Jenkins and Chris Ivory all got hurt and couldn’t play in the playoffs.

The Saints now are in the same boat, with the 49ers unlikely to lose at St. Louis, though the Saints did Oct. 30.

Further complicating matters, if Brees doesn’t play, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady could pass him up for the all-time single-season passing record.

The Saints should and will try to win — at least until the scoreboard shows the 49ers comfortably ahead.