Tom Brady’s split from the New England Patriots was messy from the start, and it appears to be getting worse with each passing day.
This past week NFL insider Michael Silver reported that former Patriots coaches have “openly denigrated” Brady and his abilities this year.
“In making the case that the Patriots’ system is supreme, [New York Giants head coach Joe] Judge and some ex-New England have assistants have openly denigrated the abilities of Tom Brady–claiming he struggles when it comes to throwing deep, throwing outside the numbers and moving in the pocket,” he said.
“To their credit, Judge and his assistants DO acknowledge that the six-time Super Bowl champion is intelligent,” Silver continued.
“They’ve also claimed that the Giants’ offensive personnel is equal to what they had in New England in past years.”
6) In making the case that the Patriots’ system is supreme, Judge and some ex-New England have assistants have openly denigrated the abilities of Tom Brady–claiming he struggles when it comes to throwing deep, throwing outside the numbers and moving in the pocket…
— Michael Silver 🐻 (@MikeSilver) November 20, 2020
7) To their credit, Judge and his assistants DO acknowledge that the six-time Super Bowl champion is intelligent. They’ve also claimed that the Giants’ offensive personnel is equal to what they had in New England in past years…
— Michael Silver 🐻 (@MikeSilver) November 20, 2020
Interestingly enough, this report aligns perfectly with another from earlier this year suggesting that many Patriots players were happy that Brady left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I will admit to you that from what I’ve heard since Tom Brady departed,” Greg Bedard said at the time.
Masai Ujiri woke Kawhi Leonard up at 5 am. Every. Single. Day. https://t.co/Dd0ioc4fIv
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 28, 2020
“The Patriots did need a vibe change in the locker room because a dour Brady, which start to crop up at the end of 2018, took its toll on the Patriots last season.
“It was so bad that some of his teammates have admittedly privately that it was better for all involved that Brady moved on if he was going to have the same attitude this season.”
Brady is currently in the midst of a tough stretch with the Bucs. The team is fresh off a 27-24 defeat at the hands of the LA Rams on Monday Night Football, and the future Hall of Famer struggled to deliver in the way many expected him to.
The lesson here: actions have consequences. https://t.co/aVhdqhCxfN
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 27, 2020
After the outing, Brady’s own head coach called him out.
“Offensively, it’s just a matter of each and every week if the quarterback plays well or not,” Bruce Arians said.
“We have Tom calling a lot of his own [plays], or picking his own on the sidelines from the game plan,” he added.
Yikes. This is gonna follow the Suns around forever. https://t.co/6pL4LZ100O
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 25, 2020
Brady misread a lot of coverages against the Rams.
“We’ve got the guys open. We’ve just missed ’em,” Arians said. “There are times when coverage dictates you go to that guy. I think we can do a better job of utilizing the deep ball in our game plan. … But when they’re there, we need to hit ’em. We can’t have ’em going off our fingertips and we can’t overthrow ’em.
“Other than the deep ball, I think he’s getting confused a few times with coverage that might be causing some inaccurate balls, but I don’t see it at all in practice. We’re not missing the deep ball in practice, that’s for sure, so it’s just a matter of, on Sundays, hitting ’em.”
Paulina Gretzky has taken Masters victory celebrations to a new level. https://t.co/K1yliTiGao
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 22, 2020
Brady recorded 216 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions on 26-of-48 passing for the day against LA. One thing that really stuck out in the game was his issues against disguises.
For the season he is completing 58 percent of his passes against disguises – good for 29th in the entire NFL. Between 2016 and 2019 he completed 69 percent of his passes against disguises.
All that being said – the Buccaneers are still virtual locks to make the playoffs this year. The same cannot be said for the Patriots or Giants. With that in mind, a bit of humility on the part of the latter two teams’ coaches and players might be warranted.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
