New Orleans Saints Are Wasting the End of Drew Brees' Hall of Fame Career

There will be a midsummer night sometime in the future when Drew Brees steps to a podium in Canton, Ohio, and slips on his gold jacket for the first time.

His inclusion in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is guaranteed.

When that day comes, we'll remember his greatness and, more specifically, the offensive fireworks he produced through pinpoint deep passing. We'll still be awestruck by the ballooning passing numbers he pumped out, which now includes his membership in a unique club, as SportsCenter noted:

But we'll look back with regret too. That feeling is growing with each wasted season.

The New Orleans Saints have been blessed with a passer who's among the best of his era. And yet, due to circumstances out of his control, they've made the playoffs just five times during his 10 full seasons in New Orleans.

The Saints have missed the postseason in three of the past four years, and 2016 isn't off to a promising start (2-3). The Saints are traveling down a familiar road, one that ends with another lost season even as a masterful passer keeps catapulting his darts to every area of the field.

The darkness closes in further when we compare Brees to the few peers on his level. Peyton Manning is in the early days of his retirement, and the Indianapolis Colts missed the playoffs just twice during his 13 years there. The New England Patriots have been consistent contenders with Tom Brady as their quarterback, whiffing on the postseason only once during his 16 years under center (excluding 2000 and 2008 when he played one game each).

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Brees is forced to stand and watch as the gushing, broken dam that is his defense allows the opposition's point total to climb. Often, the bullet-thrower can then match the mark set before him, but it's rarely easy.

On Sunday, the Saints were cruising toward an easy win over the woeful Carolina Panthers.

They led 21-0 in the second quarter and entered halftime up 24-10. The lead vanished thanks to 21 fourth-quarter points. Brees had to lead a last-minute drive to preserve the win and rely on kicker Wil Lutz to connect on a 52-yard, game-winning field goal.

Scoring points in buckets should translate to comfortable wins. Five games in, the Saints have scored 30-plus points four times, yet their two wins came by one and three points.

Playing white-knuckle football has become too common.

Year	Points allowed/game	Points scored/game
2011	21.2 (13th)	34.2 (2nd)
2012	28.4 (31st)	28.8 (3rd)
2013	19.0 (4th)	25.9 (10th)
2014	26.5 (28th)	25.1 (9th)
2015	29.8 (32nd)	25.5 (8th)

The Saints made the playoffs at the end of two years listed above. One of them came in 2013, the only season they fielded a top-10 defense. Brees anchored a top-10 offense in all five years.

He's doing the same in 2016, with the Saints averaging 31 points per game. Once again, Brees is being undermined by a league-worst defense (33.6).

The nine-time Pro Bowler is still playing at a high level, but history shows quarterbacks can tumble down a cliff as Father Time comes closer with his warm retirement blanket. Brees is 37.

That is what makes the Saints' past few seasons more frustrating for fans: New Orleans has given Brees the 28th- and 32nd-ranked defenses during his age-35 and -36 seasons.

Brees has thrown for a league-leading average of 346.8 yards per game (minimum five games played). He has set an early pace to break Peyton Manning's single-season passing-yardage record, a plateau the Falcons' Matt Ryan could also climb above. Barring injury, Brees should cruise toward his fifth season with 5,000-plus passing yards.

In the cozy confines of the Superdome, he's established an unprecedented level of consistency, as the team's official Twitter account pointed out:

No one has thrown for more yards than Brees' 50,288 since he signed with the Saints in 2006. It's not even close, with the Chargers' Philip Rivers second over that period at 42,946 yards, according to Pro Football Reference.

His weekly and yearly efficiency has led to a Super Bowl ring and three NFC South division championships. It should have resulted in more. Instead, the Saints defense continues to bring its world-class quarterback down through a combination of injuries, regression and a glaring lack of depth.

Brees has done more than his share to turn his individual production into team success. As the years pile up, though, he's been held back in the most frustrating way possible.