Drew Brees injury impacts Rams, rest of NFC contenders

Drew Brees left Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams after suffering a thumb injury.

As much as Los Angeles Rams fans may not want to acknowledge how much of a difference Sunday’s 27-9 win over the New Orleans Saints would have been if Drew Brees didn’t suffer a thumb injury, it is a valid point.

There’s a reason why it’s only a matter of time before Brees punches a guaranteed ticket into Canton as one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game of football, and it’s tough to imagine where this Saints team would currently be without him.

Unfortunately, New Orleans is about to see where this team will end up standing without Brees now that the veteran quarterback is expected to miss a significant amount of time following thumb injury.

Brees alone always made the Saints a legitimate contender in the NFC, and while there’s every reason to feel confident in Teddy Bridgewater being able to step it up in his teammate’s absence, there are no guarantees when it comes to the NFL.

While Sunday shouldn’t fully determine what the next few months will be like for Bridgewater and New Orleans since it’s been a long time since the former Louisville star actually played in meaningful game, this injury to Brees could impact the entire NFC, especially the Rams.

Plenty of football fans couldn’t help but wonder if Sunday’s rematch of the NFC Championship would be the first of two meetings this season if the Rams and Saints were to meet once again in the playoffs for a second year in a row.

Since both teams entered the 2019 season as two of the early favorites in the NFC to make a run at the Super Bowl, a potential meeting in January again between Los Angeles and New Orleans didn’t sound all that crazy.

But now that Brees is expected to miss a significant amount of time, it will be interesting to see whether this still has a chance of potentially happening down the road since the argument can be made that New Orleans just took a major hit with their Super Bowl odds.

It sounds terrible to even say out loud, but the Rams along with numerous other teams across the NFC most likely reacted to the news surrounding Brees as the Saints being one less team to worry about in the conference.

Bridgewater certainly has plenty of great weapons such as Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas to keep New Orleans in great shape until Brees returns.

But until Bridgewater can prove the Saints won’t be taking a step back on offense, the Rams and the rest of the contenders in the NFC should feel slightly better over their chances of earning one of the playoff spots in the playoff picture.