When Tom Brady said that there’s “a lot of mediocrity” in today’s NFL, some were confused and debated his point.
The Patriots icon further explained what he meant in the latest episode of his “Let’s Go!” podcast, focusing more on the inability of quarterbacks to read defenses and check out of plays at the line of scrimmage. As Brady was discussing how well of a game the Eagles’ overtime win over the Bills was, Jim Gray (one of Brady’s co-hosts) asked him why we don’t see as many games as intense or as well-played as that one, calling back to Brady’s “mediocrity” comment.
“I think the point is, you want to see the game continue to grow and evolve,” Brady said. “That means better coaching, better quarterback play, and better defensive playcalling. I think a big difference too is the lack of time that coaches have with players, coaches have together in the building, people don’t understand the full picture a lot of the time.”
As Brady said that players at most positions only need to know how to do a few things well, he explained that quarterbacks “need to know what everyone is doing.” But he doesn’t think quarterbacks in the league now necessarily know as much as they should, placing some of the blame on coaches because they’re trying to “control the game from the sideline.”
“When you try to control the game from the sideline, you don’t have the answer for everything that’s happening on the field,” Brady said. “Ultimately, as a quarterback, I had all the things at my disposal to get us into a good play. … I had the ability to change the play to get us to a play that I thought would be more successful.
“I just don’t see as much of that in the NFL,” Brady added. “There’s a lot less time that people are spending on it. That’s just the reality. When I started, there was a lot more time we spent on it. Over those years, I developed a lot of those tools in my arsenal to get us into the best play.”
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Brady said that his ability to check out of bad plays at the line of scrimmage helped him win Super Bowls and made other quarterbacks, such as Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Philip Rivers, great. Now, he thinks that only Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, and maybe a couple of other quarterbacks have the ability to check plays at the line of scrimmage.
Brady laid blame on the constant pressures of getting things right in the league for the lack of quarterbacks in the league today who are able to check out of plays at the line scrimmage, saying “in an effort to get it right, people are actually getting it more wrong.” As he thinks it’s particularly affecting young quarterbacks, he recalled that being able to spend time with the Patriots’ coaching staff during the offseason helped him check out of a play that led to an overtime win over the Chargers in his third career start.
“We were talking about how they were going to max blitz us,” Brady said. “We said, ‘OK, if they max blitz us and they get us in that look, we’ve got to check the protection to a seven-man protection, and let’s get the receiver a shot down the field.’ [They said that] to a second-year quarterback!
“I was in the system my whole first year. I was being taught by Bill Belichick and Charlie Weis. We had quarterbacks school and the offseason program. We get into overtime after going the full 60 minutes and I recognized they called this all-out blitz. I said, ‘[Expletive] this, I’m changing it.’ I changed the protection, I threw a deep ball to David Patten, pass interference and we got a 50-yard gain. We win the game on a field goal in overtime.”
Instead of seeing quarterbacks doing what he did at the line of scrimmage throughout his whole career, Brady believes there are too many quarterbacks and teams being “reactive” and trying to fix problems after the snap.
“The more you can be decisive as a quarterback, the better outcomes you’re going to have, the better your process is going to be,” Brady said. “You want to be really decisive as a quarterback. You want to be really sure of what you’re doing. But you need to be sure of the gameplan, the protections, who’s responsible for who if they blitz, and where all of the receivers are going. All of that takes time. We’ve got to allow these guys time to develop.
“The pro game is reflecting what the college game is as opposed to the college game reflecting what the pro game is,” Brady added. “We’re asking pro players to play college football. That’s the biggest difference I see. It’s way more checkers than it is chess. I tried to play chess. I wanted to have three moves ahead of you at all times.”
This play did really well on reddit once upon a time. It has just about everything you want your offense to be able to do when commanded by an elite qb.
Edelman goes in motion with 15 seconds left on the play clock. Steelers defense moves in response, revealing information to Brady
Brady calls an audible with 8 seconds left on the play clock. All 5 Patriots skill position players recognize the audible and move to brand new spots on the field and get set within 5 seconds of the audible call
Ball is snapped with 2 seconds left on the play clock. Play goes for an easy first down
This requires so many things. It requires Brady to be able to identify what the Steelers are likely doing in the Patriots initial formation, be able to quickly identify new information gained based on Edelman's motion, and requires incredibly quick recognition to take all that information in and make the decision to call an audible to a play that the entire rest of the offense needs to know by heart and get into immediately since time was of the essence. Brady used to use up entire play clocks moving guys in motion, sometimes back and forth multiple times, just to see if someone on the opposing defense would give something away. Sometimes it wasn't even to see if they would give something away on that play, it was just information that could be used for later. If the Patriots saw a certain formation or personnel package and that specific grouping refused to audible out or respond to motion, it could mean that they won't in the future.
Manning was also insanely good at this. He'd go up and do the funky chicken at the line of scrimmage shouting the ramblings of an insane person and it was all to get any information he could from the defense. Colts players have said that most of what Manning was saying was jibberish other than the key words that they knew to look out for. Anything to get an extra piece of information that could help.
That type of chemistry and trust takes time. Manning didn't get it from day 1 with Tom Moore. Brady didn't get it day 1 with Charlie Weis.
That was incredible to watch and I miss him so much
Awesome analysis!
He also threw the ball the hogan at his back shoulder so hogan didn’t carry the momentum into a Steelers d. Basically everything he talked about recently was in this play
Absolute master class. One word and everyone changes their assignments because he saw a lane for a big gain. The throw was almost instant, no hesitation...he knew it was gonna work. Fantastic, really.
Omaha
The ability to do that depends on discipline and a steel trap knowledge of the playbook on the part of the offense though. Basically you're trusting your offense can outpace the defense pre-snap.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I just want to point out that another element of this is how impatient the league has become with a lack of success. I see bad teams with coaches on the hot seat change huge swaths of the scheme from one game to another. That's not how you establish a fundamental understanding of the playbook, not to mention the physical discipline to not make mistakes during the motion.