Former New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees offers strong advice to Arch Manning about how long he should stay at Texas

Former New Orleans Saints quarterback and future NFL Hall of Famer Drew Brees had some advice for Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning this week.

Brees has a theory that quarterbacks need 50 "high level starts" (via either college or the NFL) before they're ready to thrive as an NFL quarterback ( via The Athletic ).

As a result, Brees thinks the best thing for Manning would be to spend five years at Texas before leaving for the NFL.

“ The best thing for Arch Manning is to spend five years at the University of Texas ,” said Brees to The Athletic . “I’ll pause and let everybody just absorb that.”

Brees is probably right -- quarterback development is seemingly an outdated term these days. But it's still one of the most important aspects of becoming an elite quarterback. No one is elite the moment they step onto a college campus. Nor are they elite the moment they enter the NFL. Every quarterback requires development.

Manning is entering his second season at Texas. He'll serve as the primary backup to starter Quinn Ewers this fall. If all goes to plan, Manning will take over as the Longhorns' starter in 2025.

Brees' advice to Manning is essentially that he should spend three years as the starter at Texas before heading to the NFL.

“For him to just be in a system, be in a program, learn from one of the best QB developers in Steve Sarkisian and the rest of the staff that they’ve put together,” explained Brees to The Athletic. “He’s going in the SEC now, right? He’s gonna be playing against some of the top talent in all of college football. That’d be the best thing for him is just stay there, lock in, learn, grow, develop, become an incredible leader for that team and make a run at some national championships. Then, he will be the most prepared going into the NFL at that point.”

If Manning is as advertised, it seems unlikely he'll spend five years in Austin (though I think it's likely that he stays four years at Texas, which would give him two full years as the starter).

Brees is one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL (and he spent much of his career in Manning's hometown of New Orleans -- the same city where the Manning dynasty was born via Archie Manning's time with the Saints). Any advice he offers is worth listening to if you're a young quarterback. Five years at Texas, however, would be a long time. But hey, Peyton Manning shocked the world when he stuck around at Tennessee for his final season of eligibility. The same goes for Eli Manning at Ole Miss (Eli actually spent five seasons in Oxford). Maybe Arch will listen to what Brees had to say and realize that spending five seasons in Austin would be the best thing for his future NFL career.

Related: Texas Longhorns football legend has a strong take on Arch Manning's unique situation