Tom Brady: Is He the NFL's Most Underappreciated Player?

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was in destroy mode Sunday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In the team’s 39-26 victory over a team that has a strong defense, and who many opine is the best team in the NFL, Brady led the way. He went 30-for-43 for 350 yards and three touchdowns, as well as one rush that earned him another touchdown.

For his career, Brady 6-1 against the Steelers—4-1 at Heinz Field—and has 14 touchdowns against the Steelers and only three interceptions.

Part of it is game planning: New England throws the ball against Pittsburgh 73 percent of the time and only rushes on 27 percent of the plays, as opposed to throwing it 55 percent of the time and rushing it 45 percent against every other team in the league.

Still, in order to continue that trend, the Pats need to be successful throwing the ball. That comes down to Tom Brady taking charge.

It isn’t just against the Steelers, though. New England, especially the way it is currently constructed, places all of its burdens on Brady.

It’s cliché to say the team will go as far as he does, but there is no better way to describe it.

Which begs the question, is Tom Brady underappreciated?

Many would say it’s impossible for a quarterback to be underappreciated. That they get all the attention, and Tom Brady and his hair get more airtime on ESPN than all the players in the league not named Brett Favre.

But do people realize how important Tom Brady is to this team? And does his team undervalue him?

Take last week’s loss against Cleveland.

The loss wasn’t Brady’s fault; the team was bad in all phases of the game. But Brady was certainly not on his mark.

He completed only 19-of 36 passes. Although he had two touchdowns compared to zero interceptions, one of those TDs he was bailed out by Aaron Hernandez, who was able to make an amazing play off a deflected pass.

Brady was out of sync with his receivers and just didn’t have it going for him that day.

It happens.

It’s difficult to play at top level for the entirety of the season. But the Patriots are hard-pressed to find anyone to pick up Brady’s slack.

The running game is at its worst in recent memory. The defense is extremely vulnerable, with a lacking pass rush and a very inexperienced and inconsistent pass defense.

If Brady has a bad game, then the rest of the team is doomed. Even if you point to the Week 4 thrashing of Miami where special teams were the focus, Brady was still very accurate, going 19-for-24 and a touchdown.

Brady is the emotional leader of this team as well.

Look at the barking he did on the sidelines against Pittsburgh. He knows what the team needs to do to be successful.

If it isn’t getting done, he’s going to tell everybody what they need to be doing. He’s competitive, he’s tough (he missed a practice this week with a foot injury) and he’s fearless.

With an elite player like Brady on the roster, most teams would do whatever it took to put the best team around him and maximize his potential to take them to the Super Bowl.

The Patriots organization, however, insists on getting rid of its top players. Major weapons on offense and defense (Randy Moss and Richard Seymour come to mind) have been traded away for draft picks.

The Patriots have placed around Brady a bunch of journeymen, retreads and rookies.

While there was a definite need to make the defense younger, the Patriots waited too long. Instead of bringing guys along, they are throwing players into the fire now.

That’s not to say guys like Brandon Spikes and Devin McCourty won’t be good pros—because they do have a lot of potential—but as long as Tom Brady is on the roster, they should be trying to win now.

People will say Peyton Manning does a lot with a mostly unknown cast of players, but the Colts don’t trade away all their best players—they just all get hurt.

Brady will do everything he can to win games and put the young guys on his shoulders. But there will be days where it will be too much, and the Patriots haven’t put together a team ready to win without his heroic efforts.

He’s the ultimate team player. But for a team that believes the player is a part of a system, Brady seems to be getting the short end of the stick.

By not getting the best possible players, are the Patriots really undervaluing Brady? Are they wasting the remainder of his productive seasons?

New England Patriots: Has Tom Brady Ever Fully Recovered from His Knee Injury?

AP Photo/Amy Sancetta

No matter how much Bill Belichick preaches that no one individual is greater than the team, Tom Brady is the face of the New England Patriots.

His talent, leadership and determination have led the Pats to three Super Bowl victories, in which he was rewarded the game’s MVP twice. He was the NFL regular season MVP when he led the Patriots to an undefeated regular season.

But has Brady ever really recovered from his ACL and MCL injuries suffered in 2008?

Brady can still play, and New England is still a good team, but is either elite anymore? Sometimes Brady just doesn’t have it—like against Cleveland yesterday—and the team cannot bail him out.

The overall passing stats will have you believe that nothing has really changed. He is on pace to throw 27 touchdowns, right around his season average, and he hasn’t thrown an inordinate amount of interceptions. His passer ratings for the past two seasons are the highest in his career, excluding the magical 2007 season, and his completion percentage is actually higher post-injury than pre-injury.

But there may still be an issue.

Mentally, Brady wasn’t always at his best last year. He looked uncomfortable and timid in the pocket last year, especially early in the season. Brady isn’t as mobile as he used to be, and when defenses send strong pass rushes at him he doesn’t do a good job evading them. Rather, he takes a good beating nowadays. And at 33-years-old, he isn’t getting any younger.

While the numbers may not be as noticeable long term, this season—despite the team’s successful record—his numbers show a significant drop-off.

Brady has not thrown for 300 yards yet this season. In the four games since the bye week, Brady has pass completion percentages under 60 percent in the past three games, and they get lower each week, bottoming out at 52.8 percent this past weekend.

He was exceptionally poor against the Browns. The team was out of sync all game, and while his receivers, namely tight end Rob Gronkowski, dropped a number of balls, Brady was terribly off the mark all game.

There are a lot of factors other than the injury that are causes for concern and make Brady look not as sharp. First, since the bye week this year where a real difference is seen, there is no more Randy Moss. Moss is a future Hall of Famer, and he does make things easier, as far as throwing to him and taking attention and coverage away from other players. But Brady didn’t have Moss early in his career.

The running game is pretty bad, probably the worst it has been in Brady’s entire career, so they can’t alleviate the pressure off of Brady. Injuries and holdouts have weakened the offensive line and they don’t block as well anymore.

All of these reasons allow the defense to crank up the pressure.

As for defense, this Pats defense is not nearly as good as the units of the Super Bowl teams, so they aren’t keeping teams at bay. The way the defense is playing now (since Brady’s injury) they don’t have a good pass rush and the coverage is poor. They allow big plays, a good amount of points and Brady needs to be "on" in order to keep New England in the game.

Maybe it was just a bad game for Brady; it’s tough to be "on" for all 16 games in a regular season.

But something wasn’t right. Defenses are pressuring Brady and he isn’t responding well. He can’t get away from the pressure like he used to and he doesn’t have the help to cover any mistakes or deficiencies in his game.

With such a bad running game and the shaky knee, Brady could get to be more like former Miami Dolphin Dan Marino—a legend, but declining in production towards the end of his career without sufficient help, namely a strong running game to balance out the offense so he doesn’t have to play at the highest level every game.

Is Brady’s knee still an issue? Is it, even slightly, hampering him? Are the team’s weaknesses elsewhere shortening Brady’s career?

One thing for sure is that he will never tell us the whole truth.

Randy Moss Not a Part of the "Patriot Way"

Two high-profile New England Patriots players are pining for contract extensions. One is going about it the Patriot way, the other, not so much.

Franchise quarterback Tom Brady and prolific wide receiver Randy Moss are both in the last years of their deals. Both have performed extremely well for the Patriots, deserving of new deals. But they are going about it in two completely opposite ways.

Head coach Bill Belichick is infamous for not giving away too much information to the media. He likes to keep all issues in the locker room and keep everyone outside guessing.

Brady, drafted by Belichick, is his top disciple. The quarterback doesn’t give up too much information and is all about the team.

When he was asked about his ongoing contract-extension negotiations Brady responded, “I don't want to get into it. For me, it's the same as it's been. I'm trying to find a way to score some touchdowns against the Bengals. I didn't spend five minutes yesterday thinking about my contract or future.”

He continued to say that even talking about it made him “pretty uncomfortable” because of how Belichick and owner Robert Kraft feel about handling such situations.

Since the turn of the new millennium Brady has been the face of the Patriots franchise, the main part to the Patriot dynasty. He deserves a new contract. However, if he in the slightest way felt disrespected you would never know.

Submit Vote vote to see results The situation won’t distract him. He wouldn’t allow it to affect his play. He certainly won’t tell the media he’s upset.

It’s all business for Brady, and his business is beating the Bengals on the road to attempting to win another Super Bowl.

This is not to say Randy Moss doesn’t want to win the Super Bowl, but he’s also not afraid to voice his opinion.

Moss whined that no new contract proposal made him feel “unwanted”, that the Patriots organization did not respect the hard work Moss has put in and the exceptional numbers he’s put up.

He says he understands the nature of the business, but that comment seems contrary to everything else he has said. If he truly understood how the business worked then he would understand that he has a contract he needs to play out. He would understand that the Patriots had to pay Vince Wilfork over the offseason and also have to pay Tom Brady and Logan Mankins as well.

If he understands it’s business then he wouldn’t feel unwanted; he’d feel like he needed to have another good year to earn a new contract. That’s all.

The pressing nature for a new contract is obvious, as the league’s CBA is set to expire and a labor stoppage is a popular point of discussion. Moss wants to be financially secure and wants a favorable contract before a new CBA changes the values players can reach.



Submit Vote vote to see results The worry becomes what kind of attitude Moss will have heading into the season. While Brady says the right things and the public knows his contract situation won’t get to him, it isn’t so clear for Moss.

NFL fans have seen a moody Moss and it isn’t a pretty picture. He mopes on the sidelines and essentially refuses to play. The more disenfranchised he gets the bigger a distraction he becomes.

To Moss’ credit he has not been a problem at all for the team. It seems as if Belichick and Brady have turned him into a model citizen and they won’t allow him to revert back to the Moss of old. They’ve both praised Moss since his outburst to the media, saying how valuable he is, how important he is, and how they do want him on board.

With the latest news that Brady and the team have agreed to a contract extension, it may also be closer to Moss’ turn. If the team wishes not to actually negotiate during the season they can at least focus on Moss and communicate with him, let him know that he is next in line.

Still, the differences between how Brady handled himself and how Moss handled himself reflect most on their status as a Patriot. Like the topic of how, unlike New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez wasn’t a “true Yankee”, it comes down to winning; Tom Brady has lead the Patriots to three Super Bowl victories. Randy Moss has not won anything.

Therefore, rewarding Tom Brady for his victories is top priority. Ensuring one of his favorite and most dangerous passing targets is around is secondary business.

Business. Nothing personal.

New England Patriots Training Camp Questions

With the start of training camp comes the start of a new NFL season. It’s a bit cliché, but every team starts 0-0 and with optimism that they could pull everything together and win the Super Bowl.

Some teams can be more optimistic than others. The New England Patriots are one of them. The Patriots have the talent and organization to be set up to win now.

That said, they are far from a perfect squad. The team is undergoing a youth movement on the defensive side of the ball, have some early injury concerns, and still have some off-field business matters to take care of.

Here are some of the Patriots’ biggest questions that need to be answered for the team to have a successful season.

Who will start at cornerback opposite Leigh Bodden?



Leigh Bodden’s five interception season earned him a new contract with the Patriots, but who will the team partner with him?

The two leading candidates are second-year corner Darius Butler and first-round draft pick Devin McCourty.

Butler played in 14 games last season, registering 33 tackles and three interceptions, including returning one for a touchdown.

McCourty is extremely versatile and could play a big role on special teams as well as on defense.

Early expectations had the team bringing on McCourty slowly, but he has been taking a lot of reps with the first-team defense alongside Bodden, before Bodden was taken out because of injury.

With Bodden temporarily sidelined, McCourty and Butler will both start in the team’s first exhibition game, and will battle each other the entire preseason for the right to start.

One would think because of the way the Patriots handle their players that Butler has the edge because of his experience in the team’s system, but McCourty looks to be on the fast-track to playing time.

Both prospects have bright futures, and the competition will make them that much better. But right now, only one will get the nod to start.

Vince Wilfork got his money. Will he live up to his new contract?

Players in the last year of their contract typically play strongly, working to ensure a big payday in the offseason. The problem is that once they do get that new contract they aren’t as motivated and see a sharp decline in stats.



The perfect example is the previous big-name defensive tackle free agent before Wilfork: Albert Haynesworth.

In 2008, Haynesworth put up career-highs in games started (14), total tackles (41), sacks (8.5), and forced fumbles (3). He signed a contract with the Washington Redskins worth $100 million with $41 million guaranteed.

He then proceeded to go down in all those categories, starting only 12 games, registering 29 total tackles, eight sacks, and forcing zero fumbles.

This year he has had trouble even passing a conditioning test.

Wilfork did not have a career year in 2009. Still he was too important to the Patriots team and defense to let go, and he got his new contract. It wasn’t Haynesworth money, but it was certainly not table scraps.

The Patriots organization and coaching staff has done a good job bringing in quality players, both with football talent and locker room character, and Wilfork has been a vital part with strong winning teams, so it’s unlikely that he become complacent now that he has his money.

How will extra responsibility affect Bill Belichick?

The Patriots will enter the season without an offensive and defensive coordinator. Belichick will be the primary play-caller for both sides of the ball.

Belichick was already heavily involved with the defense, as that was his specialty coming into the league, but now he assumes more responsibility.



Belichick’s play calling on offense was heavily scrutinized when instead of punting on fourth down on their own 28-yard line with a six point lead and two minutes remaining against the Colts, they went for it. They failed to convert and gave the ball back to Indianapolis and Peyton Manning with plenty of time and little field left to win the game.

Considered one of, if not the best coach in the league, is Belichick taking on too much? Is his control of the team reaching too far?

When will Wes Welker be ready to play?

Welker tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the regular season finale against Houston and was expected to miss at least the first half of the season. He was placed on the physically unable to perform list, but showed up at camp.



Then he was removed from the PUP, and once removed a player cannot be put back on the list. This lead to speculation that Welker could be ready sooner than expected.

Welker has said he even hopes to be ready for Week 1 against the Bengals. He has not missed a day of camp and participated in full-contact drills.

Still, for a player that relies heavily on his route running and cutting, one has to wonder how affective Welker will be and when he will be at full strength, physically and mentally.

What does the future hold for Tom Brady?

Tom Brady’s contract situation has been the biggest story of the Patriots’ offseason.

The franchise quarterback is in the final year of his contract and the future isn’t so clear.

While he is the face of the team, the two sides have not been able to agree on an extension. Currently he is scheduled to make $6.5 million this season, well-below the price-tag of other elite quarterbacks. The biggest factor in extending Brady’s deal is the uncertainty of labor negotiations for next season and what contract stipulations and changes could come from a new collective bargaining agreement.

Another factor, although not nearly as pressing as the labor issues, is that Peyton Manning and Drew Brees’ deals are also set to expire and the New England brass could be waiting to see what the market price for the top-three quarterbacks in the league will be.

Still, Brady, most likely, isn’t going anywhere.

Owner Robert Kraft has said, “He’s going to be here.”

Brady himself has expressed that he wants to continue playing for a long time and that it’s every player’s desire to retire with the team that drafted the individual.

And if no extension is agreed on?

Brady is too much of a professional to allow it to become a distraction. He has yet to voice his displeasure. Also, players are known to have career years at the end of their deals, attempting to cash in on a strong campaign.

Photo Credits.
Tom Brady: AP Photo/Steven Senne
Devin McCourty: AP Photo/Elise Amendola
Vince Wilfork: AP Photo/Stew Milne
Bill Belichick: AP Photo/Steven Senne
Wes Welker: AP Photo/Stew Milne