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.

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NEW ORLEANS — Drew Brees and the record-setting Saints held nothing back in their season finale, heading into the playoffs in dominant fashion.

Brees passed for 389 yards and five touchdowns, and the New Orleans Saints set a slew of NFL and club records in a 45-17 blowout of the Carolina Panthers today.

The NFL single-season records set by the Saints (13-3), who head into the playoffs on an eight-game winning streak, included offensive yards with 7,474, team yards passing with 5,347 and first downs with 416.

New Orleans will host the Lions in the opening round of the NFC playoffs.

Brees, who was 28 of 35, finished with a record 468 completions this season, breaking Peyton Manning’s 2010 mark of 450. He finished the season completing 71.6 percent of his passes, breaking his own 2009 NFL record 70.6 completion percentage.

Jimmy Graham had 97 yards receiving to finish with 1,310, exceeding Kellen Winslow’s 1980 record for a tight end. But New England’s Rob Gronkowski finished with 1,327 yards, establishing a new mark.

Darren Sproles had 40 yards rushing, 29 yards receiving and 99 yards on kickoff and punt returns to finish with season with an NFL record 2,969 combined yards, easily breaking the previous mark of 2,690, set by Derrick Mason with Tennessee in 2000.

Carolina (6-10), which had won four of five, kept up for much of the first half but wilted over the final two quarters.

Marques Colston caught Brees’ first two scoring passes, making a spectacular, spinning catch with arms outstretched on the first one from 15 yards out.

Colston’s second touchdown went for 42 yards, and he finished with seven catches for 145 yards. He broke the 1,000-yard mark for the fifth time in his six pro seasons.

Brees also connected with Graham on a 19-yard scoring strike, and added TD passes of 9 yards to Darren Sproles and 1 yard to fullback Jed Collins.

Graham’s TD catch was his 11th, matching a club record also reached by Joe Horn in 2004 and Colston in 2007.

Brees surpassed 300 yards passing for the seventh straight game and 13th time this season, both NFL records he already held and simply extended.

The records come one week after Brees passed Dan Marino’s 27-yard-old single-season record of 5,084 yards passing.

Brees finished the season with 5,476 yards to go with 46 touchdown passes.
Remarkably, Brees didn’t even play most of the fourth quarter for the second time in three games. As was the case in a 42-20 win at Minnesota two weeks earlier, Brees was relieved by Chase Daniel after the Saints had built a commanding lead.

Although San Francisco’s lopsided victory means the Saints could not improve their No. 3 seeding in the NFC playoffs, coach Sean Payton had said during the past week that he wanted his team to continue building on the torrid pace it established during its second-half winning streak. He was true to his word, with aggressive play calling that produced a franchise record 617 yards of total offense. It was the 13th 400-yard game for the Saints this season.

With six touchdowns against Carolina, the Saints finished with 66 this season breaking the 2009 record of 64.

Cam Newton closed out an otherwise spectacular rookie season 15 of 25 for 158 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

The Saints had 360 yards of total offense in the first half, when they easily blew past the Rams’ 2000 yardage mark.

Brees passed for 249 yards in the half, when he hit Colston for the Saints’ first two passing touchdowns.

Both defenses struggled for much of the half, and the each time might have scored more if not for Patrick Robinson’s interception of Newton in the Saints’ end zone and R.J. Stanford’s interception of Brees deep in Panthers territory.

Chris Ivory gave the Saints a 7-0 lead on the opening series of the game with his 35-yard touchdown.

The improving Panthers hit right back with Newton’s 12-yard timing pass to Smith to tie it. Later, Jonathan Stewart’s 29-yard scoring run pulled the Panthers into a tie at 17 with 1:18 to go in the second quarter.

That was too much time for Brees and the Saints’ high-flying offense, as Brees connected on his long TD pass to Colston with 7 seconds on the clock to make it 24-17 at halftime.

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New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Bree’s records set on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.

· Brees, who set the NFL single-season record for passing yards last Monday night against Atlanta, set two more single-season marks Sunday, for completions and completion percentage. Brees’ final season totals: 468 completions (an NFL record), 657 attempts, 71.2 percent completion percentage (NFL record), 5,476 yards (NFL record) and 46 touchdowns.

· Brees broke his own record for completion percentage (70.6, 2009) and topped Peyton Manning’s mark for completions (450, 2010).

· Sunday marked Brees’ 13th 300-yard passing game of the season, extending his own NFL record, and his seventh consecutive 300-yard game, another NFL mark. Brees has 50 games of 300 yards or more in six seasons with the Saints.

· Brees’ franchise-record 46 touchdown passes are the most in the NFL this season and the fourth most in NFL history (Tom Brady 50, 2007; Peyton Manning 49, 2004; Dan Marino 48, 1984).

· Brees will take a streak of 43 consecutive games with a touchdown pass, second-longest in NFL history, into the 2012 season. Johnny Unitas holds the NFL record of 47 consecutive games.

· Brees also extended his NFL-record streak of games with 20 or more completions to 35.

· Brees’ big day elevated his season passer rating to 110.6, breaking his own franchise record of 109.4 set in 2009.

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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — Coach Sean Payton has spent the past year regretting how he handled the Saints’ 2010 regular-season finale. He hopes he can get it right this time when New Orleans (12-3) hosts the Carolina Panthers (6-9).

As the 2011 season comes to a close, Payton’s dilemma is similar to one he faced when the Saints closed last season with a loss to Tampa Bay that turned out to have no effect on playoff seeding, but was costly nonetheless because of injuries to emerging tight end Jimmy Graham, starting safety Malcolm Jenkins and then-leading rusher Chris Ivory.

The next week, the short-handed Saints opened the playoffs in Seattle and went home with a loss.

Today, the Saints could climb as high as the No. 2 seed in the NFC — worth a bye and a second-round home game — if they win, but only if heavily favored San Francisco also loses at 2-13 St. Louis in a game going on at the same time as the Saints’.

While Payton has been known to say one thing during the week and do another on game day, it sounds as though he’s preparing his top players for significant action — regardless of the San Francisco score — with the aim of riding the momentum of an eight-game winning streak into the playoffs.

“We talked about it at length,” Payton said. “We’re going to play all of our guys. There’s still seeding at stake. I know it’s similar to a year ago. I think we’re getting better as a team week to week right now, and there’s a value in that. … That progress might be something we need going into this postseason.”

There are also matters of pride.

The Saints’ offense has been a history-making group this season. Drew Brees on Monday night took over the NFL single-season record for passing yards with 5,087, eclipsing Dan Marino’s 1984 mark of 5,084.

Although it took 27 years for Marino’s mark to fall, New England’s Tom Brady is one game away from passing Brees if the Saints quarterback either doesn’t play well or sits out a significant portion today.

Meanwhile, the Saints also are only 219 yards from breaking the 2000 Rams’ NFL record of 7,075 offensive yards in a season.

The Saints also have a chance to finish a regular season with a perfect home record for the first time.

Panthers coach Ron Rivera said he will prepare for New Orleans’ best, but would understand if Payton played it safe and limited playing time for some of his stars.

“They’ve got a chance to do all those things, but he’s got to look at what happened last year (when) they had a couple guys getting nicked up before their playoff game,” Rivera said. “He’s got to make a decision, and whatever decision he makes is what he believes is right for his team. Believe me, it’s a hard decision, too.”

Rivera said his experience shows there is no definite pattern, which makes finding the right answer so difficult.

Rivera was defensive coordinator for the 2009 San Diego Chargers, who finished the regular season on an 11-game winning streak, then came off their bye week flat and lost their first playoff game.

“It’s all about winning,” Rivera said. “There’s only going to be one happy team out of 32, and I think what (Payton is) thinking about is that (playoff) run.”

Rivera is thinking about next season, which looks increasingly promising for his club. Quarterback Cam Newton has set a rookie record with 3,893 passing yards and the Panthers have the third-best running game in the NFL with DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart and the dynamic Newton leading the way.

Earlier this season, the Panthers were competitive in several close games that got away from them in crunch time. Lately, they’ve been able to close out games, winning four of five.

“It’s just kind of things developing and coming together and our maturing process,” Rivera said, adding that a win over the Saints could send his players into the offseason with the belief that they’re on the cusp of contention.

“You can help set a tempo for your team going into next year by playing well against a playoff-caliber team.”

Payton and Brees agreed that recent game film of Carolina shows a team that has improved since losing to the Saints 30-27 in October.

Payton said Newton is a unique quarterback whose running ability is nearly impossible to simulate in practice.

Brees said Carolina’s recent ascent is all the more reason for the Saints to take today’s game seriously.

“We understand how good this Carolina team is coming here and how even though we don’t necessarily control our own destiny … our mindset is we want to go into the playoffs playing our best football,” Brees said. “We don’t feel like we did that last year.”

The Panthers may be 6-9 entering today’s game, but one thing in certain — they have plenty of optimism.

The team is buoyed by the thought of what Newton might accomplish with a full offseason to work with coaches. What’s more, 16 players are coming off injuries and the bulk of the roster is under contract.

“I don’t think there’s any question, everyone in this locker room is excited about next year,” tight end Greg Olsen said.

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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.

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Tuesday felt very much like Ash Wednesday in New Orleans. The morning streets were eerily quiet as the city slowly rousted itself from the Carnival-like celebration of Drew Brees’ record-breaking passing performance for the New Orleans Saints the previous night.

Alas, there’s always someone who wants to rain on the parade, even one as universally fun as Monday’s surprisingly easy 45-16 flogging of the Falcons.

The criticism of the Saints’ decision to go for Dan Marino’s 27-year-old single-season passing yardage record in the final minutes of a 22-point game was surprising. It also was unwarranted.

In case you missed it, apparently a few Falcons players and media members were offended by the Saints’ decision to go for the record with a 22-point lead and three minutes to play.

Some felt the Saints were running up the score, rubbing salt in the wounds of a bitter archrival when Brees hit Darren Sproles for a 9-yard touchdown pass that gave him 5,087 yards for the season, three better than Marino’s old mark. Others went further, calling the decision classless and disrespectful.

The Falcons’ frustration is understandable. They’d just been embarrassed by their archrivals on national TV in a critical game. It was their most lopsided regular-season loss in years and their fifth setback in the past six meetings with the Saints. Their Angry Bird mentality makes sense.

But truth be told, this really had nothing to do with them. They were just innocent bystanders. This had everything to do with Brees, the Saints and New Orleans.

This was a New Orleans moment, a town and team celebrating one of their own. It was their chance to honor Brees for his remarkable season and celebrate a significant accomplishment in his burgeoning Hall of Fame career. It was as if Coach Sean Payton and the Saints were saying to America, “OK, you can continue to snub this incredible player in the MVP balloting, but you can’t deny this moment. This is our time.” Or more appropriately, “This is his time.”

“I felt like the moment was right, so you go with your gut,” Payton said Tuesday afternoon. “I thought it was the right decision last night. This morning, I thought it was clearly the right decision.”

Right place, right time

Payton wasn’t trying to rub it in the face of the Falcons and their classy coach, Mike Smith, and he said so afterward. In fact, both Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and Smith went out of their way after the game to praise Brees and acknowledge the significance of his accomplishment.

“We have a ton of respect for Falcons Coach Mike (Smith), his staff and his players,” Payton said Monday night. “It seemed like the right thing to do. I felt real good about the decision.”

He should. It was the correct thing to do.

Was it a little defiant and impulsive? Maybe. Did it fly in the face of conventional wisdom? You bet. And that’s exactly why New Orleanians loved every second of it. After all, what city loves itself or embraces its eccentricity more than New Orleans, right?

Besides, it’s exactly what everyone — with the exception of the Falcons and their fans — wanted. The sellout crowd had packed the stadium in anticipation of witnessing history. A nationwide audience on the “Monday Night Football” broadcast had stayed up past its bedtime to catch the historic event.

This was the appropriate setting for such a remarkable achievement by such a remarkable player. The alternative was to wait and watch him break the mark Sunday at noon against Carolina. No, this historic mark needed the right moment, and it materialized fatefully in the final minutes of play Monday night.

“He is such a great teammate,” Payton said of Brees. “His leadership ability transcends just the New Orleans Saints team and into this region. I think it is pretty obvious. It was pretty special last night for the fan base to share in that accomplishment.”

Make no mistake, Payton didn’t go for the record to ingratiate himself with fans. He did it for the only reason he should have: because it was the best thing for his team and organization.

The last thing the Saints (12-3) needed was the distraction of the record chase to carry over another week. Brees and his teammates needed to turn their attention toward the Carolina Panthers (6-9) and trying to secure the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the playoffs.

End games

Now Payton has some important decisions to make.

How does he handle Sunday’s game against the Panthers and the dynamic Cam Newton? Does he rest his regulars, knowing the chances of the Rams (2-13) beating the 49ers (12-3) are slim to none? Or does he go for it again and risk losing a key player or two to injury?

Payton was mum about his intentions Tuesday.

In a nearly identical situation last season, Payton elected to play his regulars and watched safety Malcolm Jenkins, tight end Jimmy Graham and running back Chris Ivory drop with injuries in the first half. A dreadful loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the playoffs followed.

Moreover, where do all of the records and historic streaks come into play?

The Saints are 219 yards shy of the NFL record for total yards in a season set by the 2000 St. Louis Rams.

Brees has a 42-game streak of consecutive games with a touchdown pass to consider.

And lest we forget, New England’s Tom Brady trails Brees by a mere 190 yards in the passing yardage race. If Payton sits Brees early, he runs the risk of seeing Brady overtake his star at the season’s finish line. After Monday night’s euphoria, you know he wants to maintain the record for Brees.

Then again, Payton can’t afford to expose his star quarterback to injury for a second longer than necessary. As soon as the 49ers’ game is decided, he needs to pull Brees and all of the regulars he can. This is one time where the team needs to eschew its one-game-at-a-time philosophy. The Saints need to be thinking ahead. The Super Bowl is the priority.

“What we have to do is keep playing,” Payton said. “The playoffs are close. How do we put ourselves in the best position to play well and put ourselves in an opportunity to win a championship?”

From here on out, a championship is the only thing that matters.

Jeff Duncan can be reached at jduncan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3404.

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After obliterating the NFL record books this year, the New Orleans Saints’ offense is now taking over the Pro Bowl too. For the first time in franchise history, five offensive players were invited to the annual all-star game, including first-time selections tight end Jimmy Graham and offensive tackle Jermon Bushrod.

They joined quarterback Drew Brees and guards Carl Nicks and Jahri Evans, thanks to a combination of votes by fans, players and coaches. Graham, Evans and Nicks are starters. No defensive players or special teamers made the team.

This is the third straight year the Saints have had at least five Pro Bowlers, though they’re all hoping to skip the game to play in the Super Bowl instead, like they did two years ago. This year’s game will be played in Honolulu on Sunday, Jan. 29, one week before Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.

It’s no surprise that the Saints landed five offensive players in the game – including Brees, who was selected for the fifth time in the last six years. Brees broke Dan Marino’s NFL record for the most passing yards in a single season on Monday night, reaching 5,087 yards with one game to spare. And the entire offense is on pace to break the 2000 St. Louis Rams’ NFL record of 7,075 yards in a season, among other marks.

Graham also has a shot at NFL history. He needs 68 yards in Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Carolina Panthers to break Kellen Winslow’s 31-year-old NFL record of 1,290 receiving yards by a tight end. However, Graham also needs to pass up New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, who is six yards ahead of him right now during a league-wide tight end revolution.

In just his second NFL season, Graham has put together one of the most prolific seasons by a tight end in NFL history, with 91 catches for 1,213 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“Being selected to represent the NFC team in the Pro Bowl is a tremendous honor,” Graham said in a statement released by the team. “If you look around the NFC, you see a ton of amazing and talented players at tight end and to be thought of in that company by my peers, the head coaches and the fans who follow the NFL is something I take seriously. I think it goes without saying that there are many people to thank–starting with my position coach, Terry Malone, our offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael and Coach (Sean) Payton. None of this would be possible without working with guys like Drew Brees, our running backs and receivers and the guys in the tight ends room. David Thomas has been a great mentor, as was Jeremy Shockey, and I have learned a lot from each guy who has worked with me over the past two seasons. My focus right now isn’t on going to Hawaii, it’s on the Carolina Panthers and getting ready for the playoffs, but I think any guy who gets named to the Pro Bowl realizes that it’s a heck of compliment and I am grateful and humbled by it.”

Bushrod’s selection was a breakthrough moment for the fifth-year pro and third-year starter. The recognition is certainly due after he’s flown mostly under the radar in his young career. He has only allowed three sacks this season while protecting Brees’ blind side.

Evans and Nicks are widely considered the NFL’s best guard tandem, thanks to the way they create a secure pocket for Brees to step into, as well as the way the block for run plays and screen passes. This is the third straight Pro Bowl selection for Evans and the second straight for Nicks.

The list of Pro Bowl alternates was not immediately released, though it’s likely the Saints could earn more invites down the road when replacement players are needed.

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One day Baylen and Bowen Brees will tell their friends about the night their father broke the NFL record for passing yards in a season. They’ll talk about how it came on the day after Christmas against the archrival Atlanta Falcons on the game’s biggest stage, “Monday Night Football.”

But the Brees boys won’t tell the whole story, because they might have been the only ones in New Orleans who didn’t actually see Drew Brees break Dan Marino’s hallowed 27-year-old milestone in dramatic fashion, making America and an anxious crowd wait until his final pass to eclipse the mark of 5,084 yards set in 1984.

“They were home sleeping,” Brees said of his sons, minutes after his record-setting performance in a euphoric 45-16 rout of the Falcons. “But they may have felt the reverberation in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.”

The Saints (12-3) have played a lot of big games in the Dome during the Brees-Sean Payton era. And this one will rank right up there with the cathartic NFC championship game victory against the Vikings, the astonishing rout of the Patriots in 2009 and the inspirational come-from-behind win against the Texans on the five-year anniversary of the Dome-coming game with Steve Gleason in the house.

The stakes were bigger but as far as moments go, only Gleason’s blocked punt, Garrett Hartley’s field goal and Tracy Porter’s interception might match this one for sheer dramatics.

Few in the stadium will forget the moment when the record fell. Let the record show the milestone tumbled on a 9-yard touchdown reception to Darren Sproles with 2 minutes, 51 seconds remaining.

“Just an amazing feeling, an amazing moment,” Brees said after the exclamation point of his 307-yard, four-touchdown night that leaves him with 5,087 yards for the season. “We couldn’t have made it more dramatic could we? … It makes me feel good. I think we made a lot of people happy tonight.”

Brees went out of his way to deflect talk of the record last week. He said he was trying to numb himself to conversation. But it was a futile effort. Everywhere he went it was the topic of discussion.

Afterward it was clear how important it was to him. He carried the game ball from the touchdown under his left arm for several minutes on the sideline as a parade of teammates lined up for congratulatory hugs. He addressed his teammates for several minutes in the post-game locker room after receiving the game ball.

Payton appropriately made a point of recognizing the history of the occasion afterward in the locker room. Marino’s record, after all, had stood for 27 years. Some of the game’s greatest quarterbacks ­– Joe Montana; Steve Young; Brett Favre; Kurt Warner; Peyton Manning; Tom Brady — have aired it out in the league since then and not broken it.

“Obviously, it’s a special moment for the players and especially Drew,” said Payton, still sporting a large smudge of eye black from his emotional hug with Brees after the record. “I couldn’t be more proud of him. … It was special. There are certain things you remember. It was significant.”

In 2008, Brees fell 15 yards and one incompletion to Lance Moore short of the record. That year, he insisted he was unaware of how close he was to the mark as the Saints frantically tried to rally in a close loss to the Panthers.

This time, there was no doubt about it. Everyone in the stadium held their collective breath as Brees methodically marched down the field.

As Sproles streaked into the end zone, Brees thrust his fists into the air and was swarmed by the entire offense into a roiling dogpile. Payton and offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael thrust their fists into the air simultaneously.

“That was one of the best feelings I’ve had as a Saint,” said guard Carl Nicks, who wrapped Brees in a bear hug and lifted him over his head as teammates swarmed to congratulate him. “This was probably better than the NFC championship. It was like a movie. It’s a beautiful ending.”

Afterward, Payton admitted he eschewed traditional end-of-game strategy to make a run at the record down the stretch. He said he felt it was appropriate to go for the mark at that time. And I agree wholeheartedly.

With all due respect to the Falcons (9-6), the Saints needed to get the record out of the way. It had become the 500-pound elephant in the locker room for the past month. The last thing they needed was to deal with the issue for another week.

Now they can focus on the playoffs and the main priority: another Super Bowl run.

Indeed, the record became so big it eclipsed the game, which, in itself, was substantial. The Saints secured the NFC South Division title with the win and clinched either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed along with it.

They still have an outside shot at the No. 2 seed but would need help from an unlikely source Sunday to earn it. They need to defeat the Carolina Panthers and hope the 2-13 St. Louis Rams can somehow upset San Francisco (12-3) to knock the 49ers out of the No. 2 seed.

That means Brees and company will be forced to play most of the way in their battle with the Panthers. He’ll get a chance to add to his record and keep distance between himself and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who trails him by only 190 passing yards.

“You do have to enjoy these things because you don’t how often they are going to come around,” Brees said. “They’re rare.”

Indeed, it was a rare night. And even rarer was the quarterback who made it so special.

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Saints 21, Falcons 10

Drew Brees found Jimmy Graham in the back of the end zone as Graham used his height advantage and jumping ability to pull down his 10th touchdown of the season as the Saints opened up a two-score lead. Graham’s touchdown total is the most by a Saints tight end in a single season.

On the drive, Brees completed a 2-yard pass to Marques Colston that made him the first player in NFL history to throw for 5,000 yards in a season twice.

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All-Pro New Orleans Saints

Being named an All-Pro by the Associated Press is one of the highest honors that an NFL player can receive. This honor is more prestigious than the Pro Bowl because All-Pro players are chosen from all 32 NFL teams. With another incredible season winding down, the New Orleans Saints should have several All-Pro players on their 2011 squad. Take a closer look at the Saints players who are worthy of NFL All-Pro recognition in 2011.

Guard: Jahri Evans

Since his NFL career began with the Saints in 2006, Jahri Evans has been one of the most respected offensive linemen in the league. In 2009 and 2010, Evans was not only selected to the Pro Bowl, but he was also a first team All-Pro. Evans has consistently kept opposing defenders away from QB Drew Brees and the Saints interior rushing attack has improved considerably in the second half of 2011.

Safety: Roman Harper

After the Saints playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks, I would have never dreamt that I’d be writing an article promoting Roman Harper as a 2011 All-Pro candidate. However, playing in his natural strong safety position in 2011, Harper has reminded me of other hard-hitting All-Pro NFL safeties such as Ronnie Lott. The best hitter and tackler on the Saints, Harper also has 7.5 sacks in 2011 in Gregg Williams’ blitz-happy defense.

Tight End: Jimmy Graham

Prior to the 2011 NFL season, I wrote an article claiming that Saints TE Jimmy Graham would be a top five tight end this year. Many of my non-Saints fan readers had probably never heard of Graham. However, he quickly became the favorite target of Drew Brees in 2011. Despite the emergence of several athletic, All-Pro NFL tight ends in 2011, Graham should make the All-Pro squad with his 87 receptions and nine TDs.

Quarterback: Drew Brees

Three NFL QBs distanced themselves from the pack in 2011. However, if he breaks and holds the coveted NFL single-season passing yardage record, Drew Brees has got to be a 2011 NFL All-Pro QB. Brees also has the Saints within reach of matching the most wins in franchise history. If Brees does not make the 2011 NFL All-Pro team, it will be a clear indication of a lack of respect for the Saints by the national media.

Other Saints who could be All-Pro in 2011

Guard: Carl Nicks, Kick Returner: Darren Sproles, Safety: Malcolm Jenkins

Patrick Michael was born and raised in New Orleans and currently resides in the Big Easy. As such, he is a lifelong, diehard New Orleans Saints fan. His highlight as a Saints fan was experiencing the magical Super Bowl season of 2009.

Source

“Drew Brees,” pro-football-reference.com

“Jimmy Graham,” pro-football-reference.com

“Roman Harper,” pro-football-reference.com

“Jahri Evans,” pro-football-reference.com

More from this contributor

Is Drew Brees the frontrunner for 2011 NFL MVP?

The top 5 NFL tight ends for 2011

Game summary of Super Bowl 48

The top 5 NFC teams since 2006

Top 5 NFL players in the Hall of Fame who should not be

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Drew Brees isn’t the only player on the New Orleans Saints making NFL history this year. His new favorite target, tight end Jimmy Graham, is within striking distance of some all-time receiving records of his own.

With 1,171 receiving yards this year, Graham is on pace for 1,338, which would be the most by a tight end in NFL history, breaking the mark of 1,290 set by Kellen Winslow in 1980. However, Graham also needs to hold off New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, who is on pace for 1,304 yards this year.

Graham also has a shot at Tony Gonzalez’s NFL record of 102 receptions by a tight end, set in 1994. Graham has 87 catches with two games remaining, putting him on pace for 99.4.

Even though Graham knew he had the opportunity for a breakout year in his second NFL season, he admitted that those numbers and records are mind-blowing.

“Definitely,” said Graham, who also has nine touchdown catches this year. “You know, being so young and it happening so quickly, I mean obviously it’s been a pretty special year. But the records, I don’t even think about ‘em. It’s honestly, I know we’ve got a big Monday night game coming up, and I honestly don’t even know what my stats are.

“For me, I just move on to the next one, and all I can think about is that fumble (in the first quarter last week at Minnesota).”

That miscue was rare. It was the first lost fumble of Graham’s career. But even when he has dropped a pass or run the wrong route in the past, Graham has routinely made up for it with a positive-impact play or two.

Heading into this season, knowing he’d have a chance to be the Saints’ full-time starter, Graham said one of his biggest goals was to “make an impact play every game.”

When making that list of goals, though, Graham said he never really thought about specific numbers like 100 catches or 1,300 yards.

“One of my biggest goals individually was I remember saying I would love to make it to a Pro Bowl,” said Graham, who can already book that ticket to Hawaii by this point. “To me, that kind of summed up what kind of year it must have been, including maybe catches and yards and stuff like that. But for me it really hasn’t been a focus. It’s just been about being healthy for the next one.”

The most remarkable thing about Graham’s historical pace is that he is playing for an offense that spreads the ball around to so many different playmakers. In fact, no skill position player has made the Pro Bowl for the Saints since Brees and Coach Sean Payton arrived in 2006 – a fact that is certain to change when Graham gets there this year.

Of course everything Graham has accomplished this year is even more amazing considering he’s still relatively new to the game. He played just one year of college football after playing four years of basketball at Miami. Then he caught 31 balls for 356 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie for the Saints last year.

Still, Brees said he’s not surprised by the numbers Graham is racking up this year. After all, he witnessed another former basketball player, Antonio Gates, emerge into an instant force at tight end with the San Diego Chargers earlier in the decade.

“I’ve been around a guy that, in particular, you kind of felt like, ‘Hey man, if everything works out the way it’s supposed to, this guy can be something special.’ I definitely feel that way about Jimmy,” Brees said. “I couldn’t be happier for a guy for where he’s come from and where it all started from him (with a difficult upbringing as a child) and where he’s at now and where he still has left to go. You just say, man, it’s pretty awesome.”

That’s all the news for today.

On a recent episode of The Sports Train, I defended the uphill opinion that the New Orleans Saints, with a record of 11-3, are currently the best team in the NFL.

Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints are the best team in the NFL right now
Wikimedia Commons

At 13-1, the Green Bay Packers still undoubtedly enjoy the top record in the league. Yet, they are coming off a late-season loss that now makes such comparisons fair game. Furthermore, the impressive victory for the 11-3 San Francisco 49ers on the December 19th version of Monday Night Football might give that team a stake in the argument as well.

However, upon stacking the teams side-by-side and examining their potential for post-season success, I believe the New Orleans Saints are most likely to achieve Super Bowl dreams.

One cannot ignore than Green Bay has already defeated New Orleans during the 2011 campaign. In a game where the home team grabbed an early lead, the Packers opened the season by triumphing 42-34 over the Saints. The shootout featured 10 total touchdowns and a combined 876 net yards, making for fun television.

Yet, the result proved little defensively. While the Pack made a big stand when needed, the team certainly benefited from playing in Lambeau Field on a night where the famed squad raised the banner on last season’s Super Bowl championship.

Green Bay received the early edge in the standings, but offensive dominance and overall defensive abilities remained in question.

While New Orleans proceeded to stumble early to weaker Tampa Bay and St. Louis teams, the Packers flirted with an undefeated season, before Sunday’s 19-14 upset by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Just as it is unfair to judge these teams by letdowns against lesser opponents, so too should we not look at week 1 as exclusive evidence of the superior franchise.

Indeed, much has changed in the past 4 months and New Orleans now appears the more complete team. Though Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees have both performed near flawlessly, it is Brees who will likely shatter Dan Marino’s longtime record for passing yardage. The momentum from such an achievement just might inspire more post-season magic by the Saints’ signal-caller.

Additionally, while defensive stats reveal that both teams will surrender points, the potential of New Orleans’ diverse running game provides a definite edge over the Pack. Neither squad is led by a pro-bowl caliber stud, but the trio for the Saints tops its competition. Mark Ingram, Pierre Thomas, and Darren Sproles have each accrued steady yardage and produced a combined 17 touchdowns out of the backfield.

Furthermore, way back in week 1, newly signed Darren Sproles was not smoothly intergrated into the offense and only received 2 carries for 7 yards against Green Bay. Though he is not an every down back, the 5’6″ speedster now possesses an eye-popping 6.5 yards per carry average and has become one of the fiercest weapons in the NFL.

On that note, Brees’ top asset, second year tight end Jimmy Graham, was largely an unknown commodity during the matchup with the Packers. Though he enjoyed a solid game, the tight end’s performance has steadily improved throughout the year. With 1171 yards and 9 TDs through 14 games, Graham may be the league’s best at his position.

Finally, while Brees has experienced a few games that failed to match his overall track-record, I believe a formula for defeating Rodgers has been more clearly exposed. Because of injuries to his offensive line and the loss of Greg Jennings, Rodgers spent much more time on the ground in the loss to the Chiefs. Suddenly, his passes were less sharp and, in fact, the potential MVP missed open throws.

To Green Bay’s credit, I don’t expect Rodgers’ high-powered offense to be stopped in a big playoff game. But I do think there is a real possibility of it being slowed sufficiently that the team would struggle to keep up with New Orleans. And there is little evidence that the NFL’s second worst defense can contain the Saints’ passing or running attacks.

Cases can be made for both teams and perhaps the surprising 49ers or surging New England Patriots belong in the debate too.

Yet, as of this moment, I will take the Saints.

But, remember, this is the NFL and things do change quickly.

Source:

Yahoo! Sports, ESPN.com

More by Jeff Briscoe from Yahoo! Contributor Network:

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Jeff Briscoe is a writer from Florida who covers sports for the Yahoo! Contributor Network and the Fort Myers Examiner. A loyal Tampa Bay Bucs fan, his favorite sounds include the firing of the cannons at Raymond James Stadium.

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The Minnesota Vikings came into the game against the New Orleans Saints with 40 sacks as a team, and defensive end Jared Allen had 17.5.

They leave the game against the Saints with the same totals.

“Their whole scheme is designed around (keeping the other team from getting sacks),” said Vikings defensive end Jared Allen. “I thought we got some good pressure on him at times, but he did a good job of getting rid of the ball. I know that I missed one by the hair of my chin and there were a couple of times where we had good rushes.”

Allen noted that Brees is frustrating because he knows how to elude tacklers, but he also credited the Saints line in how they blocked.

“There were chips and everything,” he said. “I don’t know about holding, they didn’t hold. It’s tough when they’ve got chip blocks and double and triple teams. At one point I had three guys chasing me. They did a lot of boot legs away and Brees gets rid of the ball. Like I said, I thought there was three times I probably could’ve had him and they made a play.”

The Saints offensive line has been solid all season, but against the Vikings, they were exceptional. The offense had 573 yards and like Allen said, prevented Brees from being sacked.

“You gotta slow a guy like that down,” said Saints left tackle Jermon Bushrod. “You’re playing at his home and the crowd came out to play. Sometimes you’ve got to come out and bump him a little bit and that worked to our advantage. We just had to go out there and get the job done against a good defensive line and linebacking corps.”

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — The New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings couldn’t have been much closer in their epic NFC title game showdown on Jan. 24, 2010, an overtime thriller that Drew Brees and the Saints barely survived on their way to the franchise’s first Super Bowl title.

Less than two years later, the two franchises could hardly be further apart.

The Saints (10-3) roll into the Metrodome on Sunday as one of the model teams in the NFC, an organization with a rock solid foundation at the three most important positions — front office, coach and quarterback.

By no coincidence, the Saints are in first place in the NFC South, two games ahead of the Atlanta Falcons and tied with the San Francisco 49ers for the second-best record in the NFC. Even with the Green Bay Packers looking like the class of the league, the Saints still have a realistic shot at a return trip to the big game.

“We’re a veteran team that’s been through a lot,” Brees said. “We’ve kind of learned the formula for winning and sustaining success.”

The Vikings (2-11), meanwhile, have fallen off the cliff ever since Garrett Hartley’s 40-yard field goal split the uprights to end Minnesota’s hopes of their first trip to the Super Bowl since 1978. Brett Favre returned for one more ill-fated run the next year, a long, miserable 6-10 season in which coach Brad Childress was fired, Favre was embroiled in a texting scandal, Randy Moss came and went in about four weeks and the Dome’s roof collapsed.

“You really can’t explain it,” Vikings cornerback Antoine Winfield said. “It’s crazy. The Saints, they’re still a really good football team. Drew Brees still down there, working hard, making plays. I really don’t know what’s going on. We really can’t put our finger on it.”

Start with the lack of continuity. Since that loss, the Vikings have used five quarterbacks — Favre, Tarvaris Jackson, Joe Webb, Donovan McNabb and now rookie Christian Ponder — and have had a lot of turnover on the coaching staff.

“In my mind, it seems like eons ago, seems like forever when we played them in the NFC championship game,” Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said. “So much has transpired between that time and where we are today.”

While not as catastrophic off the field, Frazier’s first season has been even tougher on the field. McNabb didn’t pan out as the quarterback who was supposed to keep the team from a rebuilding season, the secondary was decimated by injuries, Adrian Peterson has missed the last three weeks with a high ankle sprain and Ponder has experienced the growing pains everyone expected when he took over as the starter seven games ago.

The Vikings have lost five games in a row, with the only solace to be taken that a team that waved goodbye to meaningful games more than a month ago continues to show up every week and give its opponent all they can handle, including last weekend in Detroit, when the Vikings fell behind 21-0 in the first quarter but still had a chance to win the game on the final play.

“There are a lot of reasons not to really concentrate and focus and battle,” Frazier said. “And they found reasons to battle, to focus, to believe that they could get back in that game and win that game.”

Still, moral victories aren’t giving much comfort to a veteran team that remembers what it feels like to be so close.

“Me and Kevin (Williams) were laughing about it today, saying, ‘We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to turn it around. That can’t be the only memory of being close to the Super Bowl that I tell my grandkids about at some point,’” defensive end Jared Allen said.

The Saints are looking to add another chapter to a book that already includes one fairy tale finish.

Brees is playing as well as he ever has, threatening the single-season passing record and seemingly getting stronger as the season has progressed. He has topped 320 yards passing in four straight games, with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions during that span.

New Orleans has won five in a row and six of seven to keep the Falcons (8-5) at arm’s length and keep pace with the 49ers for the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs. Jimmy Graham has emerged as one of the dominant tight ends in the game and linebacker Jonathan Vilma has been back in the middle of the Saints defense for the last two games after missing four weeks with knee surgery earlier in the season.

“For us it’s been a journey,” Brees said. “We’ve been able to win a lot of games and put ourselves in pretty good position within our division and playoff wise. It hasn’t been easy by any means. We’ve had to fight through some adversity. We’ve had to fight through some injuries at key positions and certain things.”

Saints coach Sean Payton, who has been in place with Brees for the last six seasons, said continuity has been the biggest key to New Orleans’ sustained success.

“When you look at ownership, GM, head coach, players on our team, the staff, there’s been a very stable program where I think everyone understands how hard it is, how difficult it is, the challenges we face in winning games and getting to the postseason,” Payton said.

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