1. Drew Brees
This has to be first and foremost the biggest reason why the New Orleans Saints will compete for the NFC South once again. Drew Brees is going to go down as a Hall of Fame quarterback and his career in New Orleans is the single reason why. Brees did take a backseat to running backs Mark Ingram and Rookie of the Year Alvin Kamara, who combined for over 1,800 yards on the ground in 2017, but that doesn’t mean he will do the same this year.
While the offense will be heavily predicated on the run game, expect Brees to be a little more active this year. He now has a new weapon in Cameron Meredith, who joined the Saints from Chicago after sitting out all of 2017 with a torn ACL, and Michael Thomas is going to continue to get better as his young career progresses.
Even at almost 40 years old, Brees led the league in pass completion percentage with 72.0 and threw only eight interceptions, the lowest in his Saints career and the lowest since the 2004 season with the then-San Diego Chargers when he threw just seven. He has continued to prove why he is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and you should expect him to continue that trend and his streak of consecutive seasons with at least 4,000 passing yards, which now sits at 12 straight years.
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