Payton and Brees: The Men Who Built the Greatest Offense in NFL History

by Jeff Duncan, Steve Gleason (Foreword by)

Overview

“Perfect for football fans of all stripes, this dual-focus portrait celebrates the winning power of strong bonds between coach and player.” —Publishers Weekly 

A rare, behind the scenes  look at the New Orleans Saints over more than 14 seasons 
 
In 2006, Sean Payton arrived in New Orleans as a relatively unknown first time NFL head coach. His task was daunting: resurrect a Saints team that had just finished 3–13 and had won only one playoff game in the previous four decades. 
 
Meanwhile, the city was undergoing its own staggering rebuild following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina five months earlier. Payton knew that to turn around the Saints’ fortunes, he needed to turn around their dreadful quarterback legacy. The Saints targeted a San Diego Chargers castoff they hoped would become the new face of their franchise: Drew Brees. 
 
Every team in the NFL had passed on Brees at least once because of his surgically repaired right shoulder or his lack of prototypical size. But for the Saints, Brees was worth the risk. Together, these two underdogs rolled up their sleeves and got to work, helping rebuild the city as they transformed the franchise from laughingstock to Super Bowl Champions. 
 
What they have done since, including building the most productive offense the NFL has ever seen and setting multiple passing and scoring records, has only deepened their legacy in New Orleans and throughout the league. 
 
Based on more than 14 years of firsthand reporting and dozens of interviews with players, coaches, and executives, Payton and Brees is the definitive account of how Sean Payton and Drew Brees transformed a team, a city, and the game of football. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629377698
Publisher:	Triumph Books
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	97,875
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Jeff Duncan is a columnist for The Athletic New Orleans and previously covered the Saints for the Times-Picayune. He is the author of Tales from the Saints Sideline and From Bags to Riches.

Table of Contents

Foreword Steve Gleason ix

Prologue xvii

1 Finding the Pilot 1

2 Aligning in New Orleans 9

3 Destined to Be a Saint 17

4 The Parcells Effect 25

5 Child of Destiny 31

6 Alike Yet Different 39

7 The Sean Payton Offense 49

8 The Winchester Mystery House 59

9 Blitzing the Defense 71

10 The Grind: Putting Together the Plan 81

11 Finding the Golden Nugget 95

12 Calling the Shots 113

13 The Supercomputer 125

14 Maxing Out 135

15 Fighting the Stereotype 153

16 Trust and Confidence 161

17 "Who Throws That Ball?" 167

18 Two Minutes to Paradise 177

19 Driven to Compete 185

20 The Fire and Fury of Sunday Sean 193

21 Don't Eat the Cheese 203

22 The Near Divorce 213

23 The Saint Patrick's Day That Almost Was 231

24 In NOLA to Stay 237

25 40 Is the New 30 243

26 A Tree Grows in Baton Rouge 255

27 The Payton-Brees Legacy 263

Acknowledgments 277

Editorial Reviews

08/31/2020

The Athletic sportswriter Duncan (From Bags to Riches) draws on his unfettered access to the New Orleans Saints in this expert account of the franchise’s astounding turnaround in the early aughts after years of mediocrity. The underdog tale spotlights the partnership between relatively unknown coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees, fresh off the shoulder injury that ended his run with the Chargers when he joined the Saints in 2006. Duncan runs readers from the days of Payton’s recruiting Brees—who was moved by the team’s “loyalty” and “confidence” in courting him, and was keen to help the city rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Katrina—through the Saints’ Super Bowl XLIV victory and Brees’s eventual record-setting. Throughout, Duncan reveals the inner workings of what has become one of the most successful relationships in NFL history. Hardcore debaters of the nuts and bolts of the game will relish Duncan’s descriptions of the distinct Payton offense, from its evolution of the West Coast style through his championing of a hyperaggressive attacking philosophy that depends on the kind of mastery of the field that Brees maintains. Perfect for football fans of all stripes, this dual-focus portrait celebrates the winning power of strong bonds between coach and player. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

“Payton and Brees is a fine look at a head coach-quarterback pairing that has helped define the NFL for the past fifteen years.” —Football Outsiders 


“They’ve changed football. Sean has changed the way teams play offense, and Drew has changed the way we look at quarterbacks.” —Joe Brady, Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator 

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