Mickles: Warner giving Brees run for his money

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 23, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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While New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was an early favorite to claim the NFL most valuable player award, he now has some company in Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner — a two-time MVP — as the season begins to wind down.

Brees, who’ll be in the national spotlight when the Saints face the Green Bay Packers on Monday night, leads the NFL with 3,251 passing yards, the most through 10 games. That’s 157 more yards than Dan Marino had after 10 games when he set the NFL record with 5,084 yards in 1984.

But Warner is nipping at Brees’ heels with 3,155 yards, the third-highest total through 10 games.

Saints coach Sean Payton, while admitting he’s biased, is among those who say Brees is the MVP right now, but not only because of all the yards he’s racked up.

“I think it’s hard to pick out one player because any time you talk about an award like that, there are always five or six real good candidates,” he said. “One of the things in his case is it’s not just the yardage or Dan Marino’s record. When you look at his efficiency, his third-down, his red zone, his yards per attempt, his sacks — when you look at all those other numbers, he’s having a rare season.”

Speaking of quarterbacks who can throw the ball all over the yard, two of the most productive passers in league history meet today when the New York Jets and unbeaten Tennessee Titans play.

When the Jets’ Brett Favre and Titans’ Kerry Collins get together, they’ll bring a combined 100,364 passing yards to the field. Favre is the all-time leader with 63,892 yards and Collins ranks 14th with 36,472.

According to the NFL, their combined total is the third-highest for opposing quarterbacks. In 1998, Marino and Denver’s John Elway had 109,224 yards and last season Favre, who was then with Green Bay, and Carolina’s Vinny Testaverde brought 105,979 yards into their game.

It’s not easy following a legend, which is what Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers has had to do in stepping in for Favre. It’s even tougher considering Favre retired, hedged for a month, then came out of retirement and reported to training camp before the circus left town when he was dealt to the Jets.

Brees has certainly noticed how Rodgers has handled it. The Packers QB has completed 64.5 percent of his passes for 2,351 yards with 15 TDs and only six interceptions with a 94.5 passer rating.

“That whole deal was kind of crazy,” Brees said. “It’s his job and all of a sudden it’s Brett coming back, and it was kind of back and forth. I think (Rodgers) has proven himself and he’s played pretty well.