Drew Brees and Matt Ryan reflect on competing against Luke Kuechly

CHARLOTTE — For many NFL quarterbacks in the mid-2010s, there was one middle linebacker who imposed his presence on the field and forced offenses to completely change their game plan whenever they faced the Carolina Panthers.

Channel 9 Sports caught up with NFL Quarterbacks Matt Ryan and Drew Brees to learn what it was like to come face to face against Luke Kuechly twice every year in the NFC South.

Matt Ryan: “I remember playing against him his rookie year. Tony Gonzalez was our tight end. I remember Tony coming to the sideline once being like man this rookie man he keeps chirping me; he’s hitting me. That was the first time I was like ok you’re on Tony Gonzalez’s radar as a rookie early in the season; this guy is going to be pretty good

Drew Brees: “I just know this about Luke truly I think for Matt and I, we have our kind of our presnap routine right versus every other opponent which is you break the huddle you peak the clock you look at the front and make your way up to linebackers to safeties and you’re getting a feel for coverage and the matchup and leverage and different things. Whenever we played the Carolina Panthers, my eyes would immediately go to Luke Kuechly.

Ryan: “For us too in Atlanta it was like one of the weeks where you would do stuff that was intentionally unsound and gameplan it with your protections and stuff and be like hey i know we would never do this but we’re going to do this here and we feel like lukes going to check this to it so if we do it we’re actually going to pick it up

Brees: “He was that guy that could sniff something out so (Matt Ryan laughing at this) quickly and literally from a game planning perspective all we would do was sit there and ask ourselves on any given play are we going to be able to trick Luke with this or is he going to sniff this one out

Ryan: “He was one of the few players Drew too like for me that there were a handful of times that we would do something and he would call it out and you’d be sitting there like he’s right thats exactly what we were about to do

Brees: “Then you’re sitting there as a quarterback like shoot, what do we do now we just spent all this time scheming up this play and this guy already has it sniffed out

Ryan: “There is satisfaction when you get him you know, because you’ve earned it you know you’ve earned it when you’ve gotten him. There’s, I think Drew, myself, Luke, I think all of us are highly competitive and so when you’re going against a guy like that and you get the better of him at times there’s some satisfaction to that

Brees: “Getting Luke Kuechly in a game, it was what you strove for that during the week of prep we would actually have bets in the offensive meeting rooms like do you think we can get Luke on this ok yeah I think we can get him on this or i bet we get him on that one.

It was literally when I say he was the focal point whenever we played those guys and if we ever could get him on something when we watched the tape back we would want to watch him because he would get emotional at times he’d kind of snap, and you’d see him get upset go yelling at something."

Ryan: “Everybody talks about how cerebral of a player he was and listen all of that is true he was like the emotional leader though too you talked about it drew he was fiery and like he was kind of the heartbeat not only the brain but the heartbeat of that defense too and unbelievable athleticism like the ability to cover in zone coverage and take away the middle of the field and the athleticism like i think if theres a way he could be underrated in those areas he is because he was incredible at those things as well

Brees: “I’m not sure I ever saw him miss a tackle. If he was on you he was bringing you down as a good a run defender. I think he averaged 18 to 20 tackles a game every time we played him but beyond that his ability in space to reroute to jump certain things just understand all the ways route concepts were typically built.

Then he would have the ability to communicate to others to get them in the right position. I think thats what I appreciated about him the most is as productive a player as he was he made everyone around him so much better and that defense was what it was in large part because of his leadership his communication his ability to breed that kind of confidence in everybody."

Ryan: “I saw him last offseason we were at an event together playing golf and we were having a beer after the round of golf we’re sitting there and for two hours he was asking me about why we canned certain runs away from certain looks and I was like dude I don’t even remember like I don’t even remember why we were doing it those rules changed every week so his passion his love for the prep and the planning it just showed it showed in the way he played. Yeah, I had a ton of fun going against him.”

Brees: “Matt is very involved in the game in his new role with the falcons I’m still very involved through broadcasting so i think we’re both watching a lot of tape and we’re very in tune with the playrs in this league and the schemes that are being run and just the way people are doing things and i cancertainly say like the level of appreciation for luke just continues to go up as you watch even the game thats being played now.”

Ryan: “You knew he was great playing against him but like Drew mentioned, the more you watch and the more you watch from a broad scope and you see the entire league we don’t always get that as a player you’re so opponent based where you’re locked in on the scheme of the opponent you’re going against and you don’t get this full breadth of whats going on around the entire league i think in the broadcast space drew you get that a little bit more and i think thats the area i was in the last three years you kind of see the big picture and you see not all players and not all guys have that capability that he has.”

Brees: “I’m so grateful, while it was very stressful week in and week out because you’re watching those guys every move and you recognize you can’t let off the gas for a second just because Matt was so good Luke was so good our division was so good I think it helped all of us raise our level of play having to go up against each other.”

Ryan: “Luke made me a better player; he forced me to be a smarter football player, more prepared.

You didn’t have a choice; you had to bring it, otherwise you were going to get wiped.

I enjoyed every minute going against him and I’m so happy hes a Hall of Famer. No one deserves it as much as Drew and Luke."