Careers are often unfairly defined less by consistent excellence, and more by the perceived aberrant failure. We are captivated by the big, high profile, perceived mistake. Much like the Kramer painting in Seinfeld, it becomes something that the public just can't look away from or forget.
For A.J. Smith, that was his decision to allow Drew Brees to walk out of San Diego and into the arms of the Saints. A wholly a self-inflicted wound in the minds of many fans and observers. Yet, the NFL is nothing if not a series of very entertaining false mythologies teetering on a full-blown Mandela Effect. Drew Brees and A.J. Smith are no exceptions.
Brees was not some ugly duckling QB that Sean Payton later turned into a beautiful swan as the media likes to spin it. At the tender age of 25, he was already a Pro Bowl quarterback in San Diego with an Approximate Value in 2004 of 17 - one of his highest valuations in his career and in a season that kept Rivers firmly planted on the sideline. He followed that up with a very good year of 15 AV, the same as his first season in New Orleans.
In short, Brees was an excellent NFL quarterback before he learned how to spell Payton. Something that Charger fans remember well.
The other myth is that San Diego did not re-sign Brees solely because of his shoulder injury. In fact, they were negotiating an extension for him. Smith was quoted in early 2006 saying, "Drew Brees wants to be here, we want him to be here. Drew wants a long-term contract, we want him to have a long-term contract. We are working on that and continue to work on it."
Despite that, A.J. Smith had a healthy ego (a not uncommon characteristic for general managers) and wanted to prove he was right after all for having to trade Eli Manning to alleviate the resulting high-profile turmoil. Brees was also going to be more expensive soon, and Smith's well known frugality was another factor.
In the end, A.J. Smith was heavily invested in Rivers, but needed to play him to prove it. Brees soon looked elsewhere, and Smith moved on to Rivers. After a confusing and still unsettled series of events in Miami, New Orleans took the call and, well, the rest is history. Rivers it turned out was a very good NFL quarterback, but he was forever tied to Brees, and he just wasn't Drew Brees in the end. The Rivers Index is a terrific historical monument to the early days of "Chargers gonna Charger."
An often forgotten aside to the controversial 2004 QB swap (mentioned in the piece) was that the Chargers also got additional Draft capital in addition to Rivers that was used, in part, to acquire Shawne Merriman. A retrospective look at the Manning trade suggests that Smith did very well indeed, perhaps even better than that. But history is often not kind to messy details or secondary effects.
I always thought that Brees' later enormous success came to overshadow Rivers' excellent career as well as that of A.J. Smith, who was fired less than three years after the Saints captured the Super Bowl.
Careers are often unfairly defined less by consistent excellence, and more by the perceived aberrant failure. We are captivated by the big, high profile, perceived mistake. Much like the Kramer painting in Seinfeld, it becomes something that the public just can't look away from or forget.
For A.J. Smith, that was his decision to allow Drew Brees to walk out of San Diego and into the arms of the Saints. A wholly a self-inflicted wound in the minds of many fans and observers. Yet, the NFL is nothing if not a series of very entertaining false mythologies teetering on a full-blown Mandela Effect. Drew Brees and A.J. Smith are no exceptions.
Brees was not some ugly duckling QB that Sean Payton later turned into a beautiful swan as the media likes to spin it. At the tender age of 25, he was already a Pro Bowl quarterback in San Diego with an Approximate Value in 2004 of 17 - one of his highest valuations in his career and in a season that kept Rivers firmly planted on the sideline. He followed that up with a very good year of 15 AV, the same as his first season in New Orleans.
In short, Brees was an excellent NFL quarterback before he learned how to spell Payton. Something that Charger fans remember well.
The other myth is that San Diego did not re-sign Brees solely because of his shoulder injury. In fact, they were negotiating an extension for him. Smith was quoted in early 2006 saying, "Drew Brees wants to be here, we want him to be here. Drew wants a long-term contract, we want him to have a long-term contract. We are working on that and continue to work on it."
Despite that, A.J. Smith had a healthy ego (a not uncommon characteristic for general managers) and wanted to prove he was right after all for having to trade Eli Manning to alleviate the resulting high-profile turmoil. Brees was also going to be more expensive soon, and Smith's well known frugality was another factor.
In the end, A.J. Smith was heavily invested in Rivers, but needed to play him to prove it. Brees soon looked elsewhere, and Smith moved on to Rivers. After a confusing and still unsettled series of events in Miami, New Orleans took the call and, well, the rest is history. Rivers it turned out was a very good NFL quarterback, but he was forever tied to Brees, and he just wasn't Drew Brees in the end. The Rivers Index is a terrific historical monument to the early days of "Chargers gonna Charger."
An often forgotten aside to the controversial 2004 QB swap (mentioned in the piece) was that the Chargers also got additional Draft capital in addition to Rivers that was used, in part, to acquire Shawne Merriman. A retrospective look at the Manning trade suggests that Smith did very well indeed, perhaps even better than that. But history is often not kind to messy details or secondary effects.
I always thought that Brees' later enormous success came to overshadow Rivers' excellent career as well as that of A.J. Smith, who was fired less than three years after the Saints captured the Super Bowl.