Absolutely Incredulous

[st.cronin]

Did I just hear that Aaron Brooks has started 82 consecutive games for the Saints???

I knew they were a bad organization ... but I had no clue they were that embarrasing.

[RendeR]

And people wonder why they've sucked for so long now....

[st.cronin]

Really. I think I'm going to point this out the next time somebody tries to say black qbs don't get a fair chance in the nfl.

[Raiders Army]

I didn't think he was that bad.

[streetballer22]

When you really break it down, it's not that long. He started about 5 seasons in a row, not really unexplainable since he had a couple good seasons.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Brooks is far from the worst starting quarterback in the league (J.P. Losman, Gus Frerotte, anyone named Kyle, I'm looking at you), but yeah, it's really bizarre that no other quarterback has managed to start a single game for the Saints in five years... until now. Todd Bouman is starting for the Saints this week.

Now that I say that, when Todd Bouman has been your backup for two years, I guess it's not really that bizarre if you're starting every game over that span. Todd Bouman's greatest achievement in New Orleans so far has been the one time Haslett put him in on the FG block team, and no, I'm not kidding.

[Kodos]

I do not think that means what you think it means.

[albionmoonlight]

There has been one controversal moment during that tenure. Brooks was backed up by Jake Delhomme, who was a local favorite, having grown up and played college ball in Louisiana. Aaron Brooks had hurt his shoulder as the Saints were entering a playoff run, though none of us really knew how badly. There was a cry then to put in the local hero backup for a suddenly ineffective Brooks. It was made worse by the fact that the Saints totally faded down that stretch and missed out on the playoffs. When Brooks later had surgery on that shoulder in the offseason, and Jake left to lead a division rival to the Super Bowl . . . well, some people never forgave Brooks for that.

Right now, the Saints are going through so much shit (it was reported yesterday that the owner told his staff LAST WEEK not to go back to New Orleans because FEMA was still in the practice facility--a total untruth--raising some legitimate questions about his mental state) that I think that they will need several fall guys--and the starting QB is always an easy target.

Also, a lot of the local fans think that Adrian McPherson (the guy who played at Fla. St. for a year, got kicked out for a few felonies, and then played a year in Arena ball before being drafted in the 5th round this year) is the next coming of Mike Vick and John Elway rolled into one. That has people looking past Bouman toward "the future."

Saints fans look toward the future a lot. The present is never very much fun.

[Masked]

Brooks is by far the most talented QB to play for the Saints in my lifetime. I never saw Archie Manning play. He has the physical skills to be a top 5 QB, but was never able to get past several non-physical issues (too many fumbles, too many bad decisions when scrambling, etc). I also think the coaches did not do an adequate job exploiting his talents and hiding his deficiencies. As the starting QB, Brooks took basically all the blame for the team's offensive failures. While his mistakes certainly hurt the team, others, including the much loved Joe Horn, have made equally costly errors.

Bouman has for the most part been horrible in preseason, and McPherson didn't look good this year. I really don't think Saints will even be competitive in a game the rest of this season.

And I completely agree with albionmoonlight, Benson has lost his mind.