He has 9 TDs in 8 games (might be 7, I’m working from memory) isn’t that great. You forget that most of these games, his defense has provided him with great field position and an astounding number of interceptions (which takes the pressure off him to score). I’m not saying that he isn’t good, but if he were traded to another team, he would never see the superbowl again. If you put Brady on the Eagles the last few seasons they wouldn’t have made the playoffs. At least 6 QBs could take his place and the Pats wouldn’t lose a step. All Brady has to do is get into field goal position and his team will win. All they ask him do to is not screw up; not to actually win games. To me, that makes him a very good, but not great player. In short, his talent is overrated, but he is great at what he does.
As foolish as Brady looked throwing picks right into the end zone in last year’s AFC finals and in the Super Bowl?
Brady screwed up. He’s human, and he’s entitled. Given a second chance, he made the most of it. Bully for him. Just quit pretending he didn’t screw up, and don’t pretend he wasn’t incredibnly lucky.
I guarantee BRADY knows how lucky he was, and would probably admit it. Every champion NEEDS a lucky break now and then.
Man, you’re making it out like he’s Trent Dilfer on the 2000 Ravens.
Have we forgotten that the Rams put up 20 in the Superbowl and that BRADY, not the defense led the last minute drive.
Or that Carolina put up 27 on them last year in the Superbowl and that BRADY, not the defense led the last minute drive.
They just hung 41 on Pittsburgh, 7 of which was directly from the defense.
He led drives of 60 yards, 70 yards, 69, 49 and 55 against the NUMBER ONE defense in football.
The guy knows how to run an offense, throw the ball and stay out of trouble.
I have no idea how you say that about him QBing the Eagles. This was the first season in his career that Mcnabb has had a 60% completion percentage. Brady has averaged that for his career. In McNabb’s last 3 NFCC games, he has 3 TDs and 5 interceptions. Be realistic, man.
edit: Carolina put up 29, the Rams, 17.
Brady threw for 145 yards in the first Super Bowl. Go ahead and check. 145. In more than half of his postseason starts he’s thrown for less than 210 yards. And saying “the Rams put up (17) in the Super Bowl” doesn’t help your argument much considering that that was a team that averaged 31.
Nobody’s saying he sucks. Your statement that “The guy knows how to run an offense, throw the ball and stay out of trouble” is acceptable, I think, to everyone here in a general sense. It’s just that he’s not really anything special in that regard. Of all the quarterbacks that are treated as elites, he’s the one that doesn’t really have the numbers to back it up, and the one whose success can be mostly explained by the quality of his teammates. He gets way too much credit for being Mr. Clutch when in reality, as long as he does his job, his team is tied or in the lead in the 4th quarter 95% of the time. Yeah, when the score was tied in the Super Bowl, he got them in field goal range, but really, if he had engineered any drives prior to that against the Rams, or if he hadn’t turned the ball over in the red zone against the Panthers, he’d never have to be in that position. Basically, if Brady doesn’t turn the ball over, the Patriots are going to win. If Brady turns the ball over, he’s going to occasionally be asked to mount a drive for a field goal. That’s realistic.
What I think people miss with Brady is something that is harder to grasp.
And that is this: he does what he needs to do to win.
When Carolina put up 27, he threw for 350 yards.
When Indy put up 3, he threw for 150 yards.
When New England was out ahead of Saint Louis in the Superbowl, he wasn’t throwing balls into coverage.
He takes chances when he needs to, and doesn’t take chances when he doesn’t need to. And when he DOES take chances, he’s very successful.
Certainly, he’s not a stat GOD like Manning, but he’s no slouch either. Over the last 3 seasons, he’s been 1st, 10th and 6th in TD passes, and 1st, 6th and 10th in passing yards. And that’s on a team that is ALWAYS playing with a lead.
That said, here’s something to chew one
Check out this Tom Brady page and then check out this Joe Montana page.
Only ONE time in his career did Joe throw for over 3620 yards for 3 consecutive seasons. Brady’s last 3 years (out of 4 in his career) are just shy of the BEST consecutive three years of Montana’s 16 year career. 2 TDs different, and a couple hundred yards.
If you want to make the case that Brady’s not as good because he hasn’t done it for as long as Joe did, fine, I’ll give you that. But with the only evidence we have to go on, there’s no reason to suspect he won’t be as good as Montana.
I really don’t know why people won’t warm up to him as a very good quarterback. That’s all you hear, “it’s the system”, “he wouldn’t do it with another team”, etc. etc. etc. Until there’s a reason to believe otherwise, I’m stickin’ by it. As long as Brady stays healthy, he’s a sure fire hall of famer and will go down as one of the best ever. Like it or not, after he dismantles of Philly, no matter what else he does, there will be no choice but for people to put him in the same category as Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, and Joe Montana.
No, I’m down with that.
See?
My problem is this. On the one hand, you say you don’t understand why people don’t take to Brady being a very good quarterback. Then you say there’s no choice but to put him up there with Montana. There’s a big step from A to B, and nobody begrudges Brady the former. I just don’t think Brady has really proven himself to be a big-game killer who wins games with his arm. It’s funny, because when I look at Montana’s stat page compared to Brady’s, here’s where my eye goes immediately:
*1981 cin W,26-21 | 14 22 157 1 0 | 6 18 1
*1984 mia W,38-16 | 24 35 331 3 0 | 5 59 1
*1988 cin W,20-16 | 23 36 357 2 0 | 5 9 0
*1989 den W,55-10 | 22 29 297 5 0 | 2 15 0
All Super Bowls, and except for his rookie (!) year, he had huge numbers in each of them. When I look at Brady’s numbers, it’s the reverse – I see the Carolina game as the exception. So by the numbers, it’s easy to see the argument for Montana’s mystique. Brady doesn’t win big games through the air like Montana did.
YEAH! what he said. Plus Terry Bradshaw is overrated. Tom Brady is this generation’s Terry Bradshaw- a very good QB in an excellent situation.
Brady’s performance against Pittsburgh becomes even more impressive with the revelation that he was suffering from a really nasty flu.
I would like to submit a set of season QB rankings more in the new-age ultra-statistical mode, for this season, from ESPN.com and FootballOutsiders.com: Snap Judgment’s Final QB Rankings
At least in that particular system, Brady was in the very top echelon of QB’s this year, with a performance virtually equal in value to McNabb’s over the course of the whole regular season. At the very least, I’d say he’s clearly among the top quarter of the league’s QBs talent-wise.
Also, to bump bitching about Brady as a fantasy QB, he’s very solidly in the set of QBs that you deal with over the course of the season if you don’t have someone named Manning, Culpepper, or to a lesser extent McNabb. After those three, there is really no practical difference between the next nine or so QBs in most scoring systems; futhermore, he is significantly more consistent/predictable than a number of the players in that group (Plummer and Brooks particularly come to mind). There’s really nothing wrong with Brady as a fantasy QB as long as you draft him in the right place 
What’s to explain? He hits what he aims at when it counts. He doesn’t make stupid mistakes at highly inopportune times. He rarely throws interceptions. He’s consistently not an idiot. The Steelers, from coaching on down, were nitwits. Don’t want to lose the game? Complete a few passes and don’t throw the ball to the opposing team. It isn’t rocket science. Brady’s a workhorse with a good arm, and he rarely fucks up. End of story.
Top 25%? More like top 10%. There is no one besides Vick, Manning, Culpepper, and McNabb who is arguably better than Brady right now, and I’d pick Brady to QB over any of them but Manning in a heartbeat. Of course Brady is on a great team, but so were other “great” QBs of the past. Think Joe Montana would have four rings if he’d been on the New Orleans Saints in the 1980s? He wouldn’t have even one.