What You Need to Know:

-- Brees delivered the highest TD rate of his career last season.

-- He has led the NFL in completion rate for 3 consecutive years.

-- The Saints passed at a much higher rate in 2019 than in the previous 2 seasons.

-- Emmanuel Sanders is the team’s best #2 wideout since Brandin Cooks in 2016.

Still Going Strong

Brees lost 5 games to a right thumb injury after banging his hand on an opponent’s helmet in the Week 2 loss to the Rams. That’s about the only thing that went wrong for him in 2019.

Brees left that game early. He finished 8 of his other 10 weeks among fantasy’s top 12 QBs. Oddly, the only 2 times he fell short (and way short) both came against the Falcons -- who weren’t particularly good on defense overall.

Six of those 8 top-12 weeks found Brees ranking among the top 7, including each of the final 4 games of the regular season.

It’s not surprising when you consider Brees’ overall passing success. He delivered the best passing-TD rate of his career last season (7.1%) and led the NFL in completion rate for the 3rd straight year. He ranked 10th in the league in yards per attempt.

And Brees did all of that with Michael Thomas, 14 games of Alvin Kamara and 14 games of Jared Cook as his top 3 receivers.

2020 Outlook

The Saints signed WR Emmanuel Sanders in March, giving him a 2-year deal that should keep Sanders on the roster through 2021.

Sanders has eclipsed 90 targets in 7 straight seasons, averaging 125 per 16 games over that span. He has also finished 6 of those 7 seasons inside the top 33 among PPR scorers at the position. The Saints haven’t had a 2nd wideout exceed 70 targets since 2016 (Brandin Cooks).

New Orleans already leaned more toward the pass last season than it had the previous 2 years. The Saints ranked 14th most pass-heavy at 59.9% after ranking among the league’s 10 most run-heavy each of the previous 2 years.

And they did so despite goin…