Drew Brees and New Orleans Saints Ready for Return to Glory

It seems like it was only yesterday that Drew Brees held his son up toward the sky, as colorful confetti fell all around them on a beautiful Sunday evening in Miami.

Fast forward two years and the Saints find themselves as just another team, in the middle of the pack in a loaded NFC South division.

The Atlanta Falcons look to be even better than they were a year ago after drafting Julio Jones in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft. The pick gives the reigning divisional champions a deep vertical threat on both sides of the field, with Roddy White playing opposite of Jones.

As if that didn’t make the NFC South difficult enough, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are riding high off of a 10-6 season, with Josh Freeman looking like the future of the organization.  

The return to glory for the Saints will be a daunting and nearly impossible road to get through unscathed, but once everything is said and done the Saints will be the top team in the division.  

The Saints have looked inconsistent so far this preseason. They had an impressive performance against the San Francisco 49ers, in which Will Smith and the pass rush looked fierce, but the Saints looked rather flat in their last preseason game against the Houston Texans.  

Preseason games are important to an extent and should raise caution to some degree. But this team is still trying to gel together defensively, as they have new additions in Cam Jordan, Shaun Rodgers, Aubrayo Franklin, Martez Wilson and Johnny Patrick.  

The Texans passed and rushed all over the first team last Saturday, but rather than looking at the negatives, let’s look at the positives from the game.  

Mark Ingram and the Saints running game looked great as they marched up and down the field, playing good ol’ ground- and-pound football. Darren Sproles had a few drops, but he’ll become more comfortable in the Saints offense as the weeks go by.  

Drew Brees had a decent performance, as he completed 50 percent of his passes and threw for more than 100 yards. Like I said earlier, a couple of those passes were drops, so his completion percentage should have been better.  

As to why the Saints will win the division over a stacked Atlanta team and revitalized Tampa Bay team, their offense is still one of the best in the league. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams will get things back to the way they were in 2009.  

The past three seasons, Brees has thrown for 14,077 yards, 101 touchdowns and has a completion percentage of 67.9. Adding and averaging quarterback stats for the past three seasons, no other quarterback has better numbers than him. That’s why the Saints will be just fine with the ball still in Brees’ hands.  

Throw in a healthy Pierre Thomas and Chris Ivory, add two hungry running backs in Ingram and Sproles and this Saints offense will possess a balance similar to the 2009 season. The Saints still have the same playmakers on the outside with Marques Colston, Devery Henderson, Robert Meachem and Lance Moore, plus tight end Jimmy Graham is poised to have a breakout season.  

The Saints added a Pro Bowl caliber player up front, center Olin Kreutz. With the addition of Kreutz, the Saints now have four guys starting on the offensive line that have made the Pro Bowl.  The Saints will be a high-powered offense, and if their defense can play the way they did during their run to a Super Bowl title, New Orleans could be partying with the Lombardi trophy for the second time in three years.