His real peak was somewhere around 2004 to 2011, when he regularly had some of the best numbers both in the league and of his career. None of this makes Brady what he was at the top of his game. If you’re going to have a late-career renaissance of chucking the ball downfield like you did when you were young, it helps to not have to force passes to overcome a deficit. And he has thrown much more frequent interceptions when trailing (one per 45 throws) than when leading (one every 60). Brady’s career adjusted yards per attempt when leading is 8.1, compared to 7.3 when he’s behind. Brady has spent much more time in his career playing from ahead than behind, and it’s a good thing, because he’s a lot worse when he’s losing, as one would expect. Tampa Bay was sixth in yards allowed per play and eighth in scoring defense last year, and a dominant playoff run included humbling Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl. The Bucs have also helped Brady with the sort of defense he came to expect under Belichick. Plus, Arians and Leftwich obviously believe that Brady is still capable of sending the ball a long way. The Bucs’ Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are among the league’s best athletes at receiver, and they’re a lot more appealing to throw deep to than Wes Welker, Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola, and the brigade of non-Gronk tight ends and running backs Brady had with the Patriots. Rob Gronkowski has been a constant for more than a decade (save during his year in retirement in 2019), and he looks as rejuvenated in Florida as any retiree. But outside of a brief, glorious stretch throwing to Randy Moss, Brady didn’t have elite deep threats in Foxborough. How the Bengals-the Bengals!-Got Very Good and Fun So Quicklyīrady’s skill-position players with the Patriots were good enough to win six rings. The Absolute Agony of Watching the Raiders and Chargers Not Play for a Tieĭjokovic Isn’t the Only One in Australia to Blame for the Mess He’s In Georgia’s National Title Made an Old Strategy Look New Again So while he is not better than ever, he appears to be doing better at 44 than he was at 41 or 42. By contrast, since arriving Tampa before the 2020 season, he’s staged a revival. I figured I’d break the news.) But in Brady’s last couple of years in New England, he was something approaching ordinary. (In case you haven’t heard, Brady didn’t always start at Michigan and was not an early pick.
Belichick squeezed more out of Brady than any coach has ever squeezed out of any player, and more than any coach ever will get out of a sixth-round draft pick.
The narrative plot lines surrounding the weekend’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers–New England Patriots game will be laid on thick even by the impossibly high standards of NFL agenda-setting, and the game itself should even be pretty good.
On Sunday, Brady returns to the place where he won his first six Super Bowls, to face a coach whose relationship with him is either badly deteriorated ( per a new book) or “good” ( per Bill Belichick himself).