History will be in the air in New Orleans on Thursday night as the Saints honor Drew Brees during their game against the Broncos and their head coach Sean Payton.
Payton’s long run with the Saints and the Super Bowl he and Brees won while with the team will be talked about a lot, but it isn’t the history that interests Saints tight end Juwan Johnson the most. Johnson, who played with Brees and for Payton after joining the Saints in 2020, is more interested in the recent past.
The Saints have lost four straight after winning their first two games of the season and they’ve been overwhelmed the last two weeks, which makes Johnson’s desire for a win about a lot more than beating his former coach.
“I think Sean is obviously a Hall of Fame coach, he’s a great coach,” Johnson said, via the team’s website “But then again, he’s an opposing coach. He’s in the way of what we’re trying to do, whether that is the Tampa Bay coach or whether that’s the Denver coach or whoever’s coach it is. I think we just need to win. I think we are desperate for a win. Losing five games straight is just not something that I even want to utter anymore or utter at all. We need to win. I think the city is in need of that, we are more in need of that. So, yeah, we’re desperate.”
The Broncos are coming off a loss as well, so both sides will have plenty of present-day motivation to pull out a win at the Superdome on Thursday night.
