Just to say that they wouldn’t have drafted a QB with the #1 pick….even when Brees has gone 2-9 and had been nothing but awful…..it’s silly. You can say that the year after Brees made you think they shouldn’t have drafted Rivers, but not that a QB shouldn’t have been drafted at all.

The numbers pointed to the Chargers offense improving with Brees the following year. They finally had a potentially great tight end for him to throw to. The offensive line was solidifying, which was Brees’ biggest problem and he wouldn’t be what he is today without proper blindside protection. To think that their only option was to draft a QB 3 years after drafting one with the top pick in the 2nd round is quite silly. It’s also a waste of resources. It was true at the time and it’s still true now.

Because of Brees and because of the other San Diego connections (Bush, Hamilton, Payton).

I think it’s a great simplification to say "Brees was 2-9", "Brees was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league". The Chargers were a bad team, Mike Riley was a failed coach, the team was torn between Flutie and Brees, neither one of them were any good. In the ultimate team game, a young quarterback struggling on a bad team is expected and his statistical output is just a representation of that.

1. That 4-12 team was Marty’s 2nd year as Chargers coach.
2. Flutie was 41 and still outperformed Brees. The only people torn are the same people that want to fire Norv. The writing was on the wall: If Flutie, on the verge of retirement, is better than Brees we need to find a young QB who’s better.
3. His statistical output, which went from good in 2002 to bad in 2003, seemed to represent that defenses had figured him out. The way defenses played him that season (with no over-the-top help) said the same thing.

I guess some of that is just my opinion. I remember spending 2003 realizing that defenses were not afraid of Brees’ deep ball (and he still threw to LT 100+ times)and watching as the team got destroyed week after week. That 4-12 team was worse than the 1-15 team in my eyes, and the offense’s ineptitude had everything to do with Brees.

I did the same thing. This past weekend I was reminded, by my uncle, that in that draft we both wanted either Roethlisberger or Rivers (but mostly Roethlisberger). Funny.

Anyways, sorry for the criticism. As much as I thought Brees looked really good in 2002, I thought after 2003 that his ceiling was that of a really good backup QB (Rich Gannon?). The level he’s gotten to continues to blow me away.

I just won’t let revisionist history make it seem like drafting Manning and trading for Rivers was the only option or even the best one. I also believe that the decision to move on from Brees at that point was a symptom of poor decision-making and not a “no one could have seen that coming” moment. The object of the draft is to add talent, and by acquiring a quarterback when a better evaluation process would have shown that you already had one is a poor use of the draft. I can’t claim that the team would have been better off with Brees, since a different chain of events would have occurred following the 2004 draft if things went differently. I just don’t abide by the argument that because the results were good that the decisions were good, because I don’t think they were.

Also, I point out that no one here is saying that letting an injured Brees walk in 2006 was a bad idea, so I don’t know what the “Furthermore, there was simply no way you could invest 50-60 million, at least 10 mil guaranteed in a player whose throwing shoulder was shredded at the end of the 2005 season.” has to do with anything.

Because that wasn’t known at the time they decided to trade for him. I’m not saying that things would be better had they done it differently, just that the decision at the time wasn’t necessarily the best one. In fact, I think that gets lost in the discussion of what happened. Too many people say that because Rivers has done great that the decision was perfect, but to me (and obviously there are others like me) the decision to trade for Rivers never made as much sense as continuing to develop your young QB by surrounding him with the best talent.