Given that Drew Brees is 40 years old, it’s tempting to blame his torn thumb ligament on age. Well, ProFootballDoc.com’s Dr. David Chao doesn’t attribute the injury to age; he attributes it to equipment.

“When players wear these gloves, they’re pretty sticky,” Chao said on The DA Show. “It’s not like when you hit a helmet. The helmet is hard, but your thumb or hand slides off because it’s slick. There’s a lot of grip on these things.”

Brees tore the ligament on a pass attempt against the Rams on Sunday, as his thumb collided with Aaron Donald’s gloved hand during his follow-through. Brees is expected to miss six weeks.

"It basically catches his thumb and then torques it – and thus is the damage to the ligament,” Chao said. “The good news here is that the recovery is actually fairly reliable. The good news here is that surgery actually speeds up that recovery and timeline and makes it predictable. I fully expect Drew Brees to be back at about the six-week mark. I fully expect him to be back to where he was for the entire second half of the season.”

Which means the Saints, who reached the NFC Championship last season, could still be major players in the postseason.

“So for those writing the Saints off – I saw the Saints went from 8-to-1 (Super Bowl odds) to 25-to-1 – look, they got to stay alive for this period where Drew isn’t there,” Chao said. “But if they do and they’re in contention for the playoffs, I’ll bet those odds drop back down again because you’re going to see a good Drew Brees in the second half of the season.”

The Saints (1-1) play the Seahawks (2-0) in Seattle this Sunday. Kickoff is at 4:25 p.m. ET.