New Orleans’ Saints quarterback Drew Brees was as blindsided as the rest of the world when news broke of the Jimmy Graham trade to the Seattle Seahawks.
Brees’ first reaction to the trade was to post a picture of his little son wearing a No. 80 black and gold Graham jersey. Speaking up on the trade, Brees expressed how totally surprised he was (via ESPN).
I think it shocked all of us. A lot of crazy things happened, though, during the course of free agency for a lot of different teams. Unfortunately, you’ve been around long enough, you see some of these things happen at times. If anything it shows the confidence our organization has in the young players, especially the young skill players on offense, just feeling like those are guys that now have a chance to step up and fill a big void and fill a big role and continue to progress forward.
Referring to Graham “like a brother,” Brees acknowledged the move is part of the business even though the absence of Graham in the red zone is going to sting.
Regarding rumors of his own possible trade, they were dismissed by Brees, who claims he plans to retire a member of the Saints.
I really did not pay attention one bit. This is the time of year where I’m very focused on the family. People would come up to me and say, ‘I hear you’re getting traded to Tampa,’ and I’d say, ‘OK, that’s great.’ I have a close enough relationship with everyone within the Saints organization that if something was going on, I know that I would hear it from them if there was any reality to it.
We can tell from Brees’ response, he believes the trade rumors about as much as we believe the tabloids that Jennifer Aniston is pregnant for the 40th time.
For Brees’ sake, let’s just hope the organization is being true to him. After all, the Graham trade also came out of nowhere.
Photo: USA Today Sports