20 Years Ago, Drew Brees' Failed Physical Changed the Trajectories of Two NFL Teams

Tuesday's shocking news that the Baltimore Ravens canceled the Maxx Crosby trade due to medical concerns regarding the star pass-rusher's recent meniscus surgery sent shock waves throughout the NFL. Some believe that this will make other teams more hesitant to deal with the Ravens in the future — a phenomenon that will last until there's another marquee player or trade possibility available.

But there's no doubt that such a transaction, then cancelled, is unusual.

The last time this happened to a player of Crosby's stature was in 2006, when free agent quarterback Drew Brees was testing the open market. Selected by the San Diego Chargers in the second round of the 2001 draft out of Purdue, Brees became the Chargers' franchise quarterback in relatively short order, making the Pro Bowl in 2004. But 2004 was the same season year Chargers selected Eli Manning with the first overall pick, and then traded Manning to the New York Giants in exchange for Philip Rivers when the Manning family made it clear that Eli would never play for the Chargers.

So, Brees had that to deal with. He also put in a relatively subpar 2005 season after the Chargers franchise-tagged him, and suffered a torn labrum in his right (throwing) shoulder in the final game of the season against the Denver Broncos while trying to recover his own fumble following a John Lynch hit. Brees underwent arthroscopic surgery performed by well-known sports medicine surgeon Dr. James Andrews, and Dr. Saby Szajowitz performed surgery on what was determined to be rotator cuff damage.

This left Brees with an uncertain future. The Chargers offered him a four-year, $50 million contract with $2 million in guarantees and the rest based on incentives, and you can guess what the response to that was. Instead, Brees met with the Miami Dolphins and the New Orleans Saints as his primary suitors. The Dolphins under head coach Nick Saban were extremely interested in Brees' services, but their team doctors were skittish about the recent surgeries, and the team ended negotiations with Brees and his people, instead trading for Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper.

Brees now had the Saints as his option, and he signed a six-year, $60 million deal with them on March 14, 2006. The 2005 Saints were reeling in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, played most of their "home" games in other stadiums as the Superdome was being used as emergency shelter, and went 3-13 under head coach Jim Haslett, and with quarterbacks Aaron Brooks and Todd Baumann. New Orleans tagged Dallas Cowboys assistant head coach & quarterbacks coach Sean Payton to be Haslett's replacement, and Brees was the perfect foil for Payton's advanced offensive ideas.

Brees and Payton led the 2006 Saints through one of the most remarkable seasons in sports history. They won their first two games on the road, came back to the Superdome on September 25 in a 23-3 win over the Atlanta Falcons that featured a Steve Gleason blocked punt for a touchdown to start things off, and U2 and Green Day performing at halftime. The 2006 Saints went on to win the NFC South with a 10-6 record, and together, Brees and Payton would become as tied to New Orleans in public perception as any player and coach could ever be. Brees became one of the greatest and most prolific quarterbacks in NFL history, retiring after the 2020 season.

For the Dolphins, there was a whole lot of regret. Culpepper, who was coming off his own knee surgery, never really recovered from it. He had additional surgery during the 2006 season to repair loose cartilage. Culpepper had also picked up a shoulder injury, and overall, he played just four games for the Dolphins in 2006. He was placed on injured reserve on December 12, and while he was still recovering in 2007, the Dolphins traded for Trent Green, a move that had Culpepper asking for his release. Culpepper started a grand total of 16 games in the next three seasons for the Oakland Raiders and Detroit Lions, and he was then out of the league by 2010.

Green played just five games for the 2007 Dolphins, had his own injury issues, and retired following his 2008 season with the St. Louis Rams.

The Dolphins have not had what you could call a true franchise quarterback since that deal, with all the trying they've done. This week alone, they released Tua Tagovailoa despite the record-setting dead cap number it left them with, and signed Malik Willis to a three-year, $67.5 million deal with $45 million guaranteed.

There's no way to know what would have happened with Drew Brees' career had he signed with the Dolphins. Maybe Saban stays there instead of defecting to Alabama in 2007, and maybe everything works out. But the Brees/Payton combination in New Orleans is now indelible, and it shows what can happen if you take a chance on a player who will not be denied.

Saban recalled the process in a 2025 episode of "The Pivot" podcast.

"The last thing before you sign a contract, you go get a physical. So I'm like, 'This is all done.' And then they call me on the phone and say, you know, we don't think he can play. But Dr. Andrews in Birmingham did his surgery. And also did it on Culpepper. He did both guys. And I flew to see him because I wanted, before we ever went down this road, to see what his thoughts were, because I had a lot of respect for him. He's an LSU guy. And I've known him for years.

"So I flew up there and talked to him, and he said, 'Drew Brees will be fine.' He said, 'Daunte is going to have a hard time because he needs his mobility to be an effective quarterback. And I don't know if he'll ever fully get it back because his knee was so messed up.'"

Brees' agent then got Saban to agree to not make the failed physical public.

"They failed him on the physical," Saban remembered. "And they called me on the phone. Well, you know, you can't call up the owner and say, 'Hey, we're going to sign this guy and give him all this money.' And the guy might not be able to play. I didn't want to get in that briar patch with the owner, so I just said, 'Okay.'

"But I actually regretted it because that year, Drew Brees plays lights out for New Orleans. Now the other part about that is I actually had to call his agent and say, we had a deal, but he didn't pass the physical. And he said, 'Oh, man, Nick. You can't tell people he didn't pass the physical. I'll never get him signed anyplace.

"And I said, 'Nobody will know. How much time do you need?'

"He said, 'Like 72 hours.'

"So I never told anybody. Nobody knew for 72 hours until he signed in New Orleans."

As for the Ravens, who signed former Saints and Cincinnati Bengals edge-rusher Trey Hendrickson to a four-year, $114 million contract on Wednesday morning after the Crosby thing went south, we can only wait and see if the deal they didn't make will come back to haunt them.

Such a non-agreement has haunted the Dolphins for 20 years.