Player
Drew Brees
QB
Drew Brees: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
He finished with 80,428 regular-season passing yards — second only to Brady in the database.
MilestoneAll-time regular-season passing yards leaders (DB)
| Rank | QB | Yards |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Brady | 88,806 |
| 2 | Drew Brees | 80,428 |
| 3 | Peyton Manning | 68,201 |
| 4 | Aaron Rodgers | 65,356 |
| 5 | Matthew Stafford | 64,081 |
| 6 | Philip Rivers | 63,978 |
| 7 | Ben Roethlisberger | 63,884 |
At retirement after the 2020 season, Brees held the all-time NFL passing-yards record (80,358 in the official totals). Brady passed him in 2021 and finished 8,000+ ahead. The gap from Brees to #3 Peyton Manning, however, is over 12,000 yards — Brees and Brady are essentially in their own tier of total volume.
He also finished with 571 regular-season passing TDs in the database, behind only Brady in this era.
The Sean Payton effect was real — and it almost tripled his per-play value.
ComparisonPassing efficiency by era
| Era | G | Yds | TDs | INTs | Cmp% | YPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Diego (2001-05) | 59 | 12,348 | 80 | 53 | 62.2% | 209.3 |
| New Orleans (2006-20) | 228 | 68,080 | 491 | 190 | 68.9% | 298.6 |
EPA per dropback by season
| Season | EPA / pass play |
|---|---|
| 03 SD | -0.185 |
| 05 SD | 0.103 |
| 07 NO | 0.066 |
| 09 NO | 0.286 |
| 11 NO | 0.313 |
| 13 NO | 0.2 |
| 18 NO | 0.254 |
Pre-Payton in San Diego, Brees averaged +0.06 EPA per pass play — solid-starter level. Once he landed with Sean Payton in 2006, that jumped to +0.18 EPA/play across 9,748 dropbacks — nearly triple. Yards per game climbed almost 90 (209 → 299), and his TD-to-INT ratio went from 1.5:1 to 2.6:1.
Same quarterback, same arm — different scheme, different supporting cast, different result. The Payton offense was the unlock.
Five 5,000-yard seasons. The rest of NFL history combined has six.
Rare5,000-yard regular-season passing seasons (DB era)
| QB | 5K Seasons |
|---|---|
| Drew Brees | 5 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 2 |
| Tom Brady | 1 |
| Peyton Manning | 1 |
| Matthew Stafford | 1 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 1 |
| Jameis Winston | 1 |
Brees did it in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2016 — including three in a row from 2011-13. Before he broke 5,000 in 2008, Dan Marino was the only QB ever to do it (1984). After Brees, only Mahomes has stacked even two.
The 2011 mark of 5,535 yards broke Marino's 27-year-old single-season record. The pace — 346 yards per game over a 16-game schedule — has only been topped twice since, both in 17-game seasons.
In the red zone he was the most efficient QB of his generation: 25% TD rate on 1,683 attempts.
SplitCareer passing by field area
| Area | Att | Cmp% | TDs | INTs | EPA/play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inside opp 20 | 1,683 | 61.9% | 424 | 38 | +0.18 |
| Rest of field | 10,005 | 65.9% | 216 | 220 | +0.16 |
424 red-zone passing TDs against just 38 INTs — an 11.2-to-1 ratio in the area where defenses crowd everything. The TD rate of 25.2% per attempt is exceptional, and unlike most QBs, his per-play EPA actually held up in the red zone (+0.18 vs +0.16 elsewhere).
The profile was built for it: quick processing, ball placement under the rim of compressed coverage, and a willingness to feed Jimmy Graham, Marques Colston and Michael Thomas the back-shoulder fade on the goal line. Outside the 20 he had to take more risks — the INT rate is 2.2% beyond the red zone vs 2.3% inside it, but the TD reward makes the trade-off lopsided in his favor.
He threw the deep ball less often than his reputation suggests — but completed half of them.
AnomalyCareer passing by depth
| Depth | Att | Cmp% | YPA | TDs | INTs | EPA/play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short | 7,767 | 73.1% | 6.4 | 384 | 105 | +0.17 |
| Deep | 1,561 | 50.5% | 14.9 | 166 | 94 | +0.71 |
Only 17% of his classified attempts were deep (15+ air yards) — well below QBs of his era like Roethlisberger or Stafford. The Brees offense was a death-by-a-thousand-completions scheme.
But when he *did* go deep, the strike rate was elite: 50.5% completion on 1,561 deep attempts, with +0.71 EPA per deep play — over 4x his short-pass EPA. The trade-off shows up in the INT column (94 of his 199 classified-depth picks came on deep balls), but on a per-play basis, going deep was the single most productive thing his offense did.
His five biggest single-game passing days — and the night he threw for 510.
ComparisonTop single-game passing performances (regular season)
| Year | Wk | Opp | Yds | TDs | INTs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 11 | vs CIN | 510 | 2 | 3 |
| 2015 | 8 | vs NYG | 505 | 7 | 2 |
| 2016 | 6 | vs CAR | 465 | 4 | 1 |
| 2012 | 4 | vs GB | 446 | 3 | 0 |
| 2007 | 9 | vs JAX | 445 | 3 | 0 |
The headline is the 2015 Sunday Night thriller vs the Giants — 505 yards and 7 passing TDs, tying the all-time NFL single-game record. He had 17 career 400-yard regular-season games in the database, and 2 of 500+ (only Norm Van Brocklin's 554 still beats Brees's 510).
Notable that the 510 came in a *loss* — a 31-16 game in Cincinnati where the picks (and a 3-INT day) blunted the volume. The 7-TD night, by contrast, was a 52-49 win that captured the Brees-era Saints in miniature: outscore everyone, defense optional.
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