It's fair to be confident about the Saints' chances this season, even if the national respect isn't quite there yet.
Las Vegas has the win total over/under pegged at 8.5, but if you ask Saints legend Drew Brees, the respect will come when they start taking down some of the teams labeled as "contenders" throughout the course of the season.
"You find ways to play at a high level in those games and beat some of these teams that everybody else sees as contenders," Brees said on the Second Guess show with Bobby Hebert and Mike Detillier, "that’s when you really start to get the respect. I think we have the formula to be a really good football team."
Listen to the full interview with Drew Brees in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
But even if the Saints are flying under the radar right now, how high could they potentially climb throughout the season?
"You always talk about a great running game and a great defense as how you win games. … And then you start talking about play-makers, right? Jameis’ ability to play at a high level, to be able to make explosive plays, to be able to manage games when he needs to manage games," Brees said. "Then obviously, defensively, if they can play like they have the last couple years as a top five defense if not a top three defense, then look, the Saints have a chance to win 12 games, 13 games.”
Brees was also on WWL to help tout the Brees Dream Foundation raffle that will send the winner on a 5-day trip to London in October to "watch the Saints beat the Vikings." Raffle tickets can be purchased on alltoo.com through Sept. 16, with all purchases benefitting the Brees Drew Foundation.
The Saints open the season on Sept. 11 in Atlanta.
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What's next for you this season?
“As of right now I’m not and we’ll see how things progress during the season. It was my choice to walk away from the job with NBC. I had a lot of fun doing it. I had a chance to work with some great people. I feel like I got exposure to a lot of the different elements of NFL and college football broadcasts. I broadcast a couple NFL games. I wish I could’ve done more — I wish I would’ve had that opportunity, but there wasn’t space within NBC to do it. So I did Notre Dame football games, I did sideline stuff, I did a Super Bowl broadcast. I had the chance to do all that stuff, which was great, but it took up a lot of time during the week, the weekends, and that’s important family time for me. So I made the choice to step away so I could coach my kids and spend those valuable moments on the weekends with them, and I’ve got so much stuff going on from a business perspective and with our foundation here in New Orleans and other places. So I’ve got plenty of stuff to occupy my time as well as the pickleball. And we’ll just kind of take it as it comes.”
Thoughts on Saints' current QB situation
“I’ve always felt like Andy Dalton could do a lot of good things. I think it’s probably as good a situation as we could be in from the perspective of obviously you’ve got a guy in Jameis Winston that you feel like has a lot of potential and you can build an offense around him that can be explosive and can make a lot of plays. But God forbid something happened to him or you need someone to step in that can win some games, I think Andy Dalton is absolutely a guy who can do that. He’s proven it. He’s proven it in Cincinnati and he’s proven it in other places as well.”