Every year, we are fascinated by how rookie NFL quarterbacks perform — we discuss them, scrutinize them, doubt them, predict them — all in an attempt to predict the kind of player they could become. Can not Reach the next level.
In a way, this is the welcome that awaits elite NFL players as they make the transition to the broadcast booth: Can they do their job effectively? Do they understand the fundamentals of the job? Can they transfer their skills from one discipline to the next? Can they “wow” us? And perhaps most importantly, can they be great players?
Tom Brady is facing these questions again for the first time in decades.
We’ll start to get answers in about three months, when Brady steps into the booth for the first time as an NFL commentator on Sept. 8, taking his place as head coach on Fox for the season opener between the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns. That will mark the moment the seven-time Super Bowl champion officially launches his football career. rear Now that his football career is over, he’s tackled for the first time a pressing question: What will the next generation of Brady look like?
Of course, his “gap year” journey from playing to broadcasting hasn’t come without some bumps, from bemoaning the “mediocrity” he believes has crept into the NFL to posting critical social media comments about quarterbacks needing to “throw the ball in the right place” after Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. was brought down by a less-than-ideal pass from Gardner Minshew during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers last season. For those paying attention, Brady has shown a willingness to offer his honest opinions on the state of the league and quarterback play, perhaps foreshadowing what to expect from his broadcasting career.
Brady was similarly candid on Wednesday, speaking with Yahoo Sports to promote his “Let’s Go!” marketing partnership with Hurts, which begins this week. Brady touched on several topics during his visit, including reflecting on his year between jobs and what will help New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye as he makes the jump to the NFL as a rookie. And when it came to NFL quarterbacks and how he sees the position evolving over the next 20 years, Brady got straight to the point again.
“I think NFL quarterbacks have kind of regressed,” Brady told Yahoo Sports just hours before his Patriots Hall of Fame induction. “I don’t think they’ve gotten better. I don’t think the coaching has gotten better. I think the physical fundamentals may have improved a little bit because quarterbacks have better information to learn about mechanics. But I don’t think quarterbacks are commanding the field the way they were before.”
“Sure, that’s a broad statement. But I was in complete control. I had all the tools I needed. I was coached that way. I was raised to have the tools I needed to get on the field so whenever something happened, I could make the right play, the right formation, the right audible, the right check at the line. Ultimately, I was able to control the offensive 11 and lead them to good, positive plays.”
“There is an element of trying to control it from the sidelines among the coaching staff.”
The wealth of experience Brady had to draw on then wasn’t hard to understand. His Michigan career is well-known as Brady’s legend, as he patiently learned behind Brian Griese before fending off a challenge from Drew Henson, who was a highly-anticipated rookie. But what’s becoming clearer now, and what may shape him as an analyst as much as a critic, is how his work ethic and quarterback patterns were formed early in his career. As younger players, his elite peers arguably had much more autonomy at the line of scrimmage to run their offense as they saw fit. Think Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, Steve McNair.
Brady now sees more young quarterbacks coming into the league coming out of stripped-down college offenses, where instructions and adjustments often came from the sideline. He sees those same players stepping into NFL facilities, where staff members are embracing the shift of control from the line of scrimmage to the coaches’ hands. Meanwhile, he sees fewer commands to push quarterbacks out of their comfort zones while developing them and holding them more accountable. And that leads to Brady’s opinion that things at the position are getting worse.
“I think there’s an element of control among coaches right now. They want to be in control,” Brady said, “and they’re not teaching and developing their players with the right tools so they can go out on the field and make their own decisions that are best for their team. When I watched Peyton Manning, I looked up to him because he had the ultimate amount of control. And I think football has taken a step back in that sense with what’s happened in high school football, college football and the NFL getting far less accomplished quarterbacks at this point.”
So, what’s the solution?
Well, Brady sees it as complicated and multi-phased. An NFL quarterback can’t come into the league and demand control, much less be equipped to handle it. We’re seeing less of a linear learning process than ever before, especially at the lower levels of football. Unlike the developmental paths in high school and college in the 1990s, we’re seeing more “program hopping” at the position. Whether in elite high school football or the college transfer portal, it’s becoming an increasingly accepted norm for quarterbacks, and even coaches, to seek a symbiotic relationship premised on skill fit rather than skill development.
As a result, it becomes more difficult for the NFL to advance the position to new stages of development, either because players are not as prepared to put in the effort and learn, or because they don’t have the time to deviate from what gets them the quickest results.
“It’s everybody’s fault,” Brady said. “The players, the coaches, the league, the universities. Think about it. There’s no continuity anymore. Not in high school, not in college. There are no programs that are in development. [quarterbacks] “In college, you were on a team. Now it’s just a team. So you play one year here, one year here, one year here. How are you going to excel at your job if you’re only going to work one place for a year, then go somewhere else for a year, then go somewhere else for another year?”
“The coaching staff is doing the same thing,” Brady continued. “They’re trying to develop programs and develop people, but they don’t have the time because of social media and the pressure from the media to get better right away. So now, instead of saying I want to draft a quarterback and develop him, they’re saying, ‘I’m going to draft a quarterback and ask him what he’s good at, so I can try to win games and not get fired.'”
Is this what we should expect from announcer Tom Brady?
This isn’t Brady softening or pontificating for effect. His conviction resonates when he talks about it. And if that’s the direction of his career as an analyst, it will likely resonate with his audience, too. It’s similar to the experience of watching Manning’s candid responses on the weekly “Manningcast.” The value of the viewer experience is to embrace the authenticity. And when Brady talks about quarterbacks now, that’s exactly what he’s laying out on the table. It’s how he views the position after decades of elite success, and where it’s falling apart. It probably sounds like a former player in his late 40s yelling at the clouds, but, well, sometimes the clouds are asking for it.
At the very least, what Brady is alluding to now seems to be an honest assessment of quarterbacks from someone who wants the quarterback position, and the players who play it, to strive for better rather than a more convenient fit or style of play. And that was evident when he spoke about Maye, the No. 3 overall pick in April’s draft.
“I’m very lucky to be around him and I like him a lot,” Brady said of May. “I’ve heard great things about him, but whether he gets the opportunity or not depends on how he uses it, how he develops it, how he wants to approach his profession, just like it does for all of us. It’s not about where you are at 22, it’s about who you’re around at 22. Who inspires you to be better? Who helps you grow? I was very lucky. Looking back at my career, I looked at other competitors like Peyton Manning, Steve McNair, Vinny Testaverde. [New York] The Jets. Brett Favre was playing there.”
“I was looking around at all these incredible quarterbacks,” Brady said, “and incredible coaches. The competition was tough, the coaches were tough. I had to grow and develop. Those were the guys I wanted.” [young] We all have the same things. We just don’t see them the same way we did back then. [in my career]”… It seems like our players and coaches are slowing down. They’re not coaching anymore. They have less time to coach. There are a lot of reasons. … First, we need to be aware of it and then do some things to make a change.”
Change often comes through observation, conversation, criticism and then action. Brady sits at that critical juncture come September, and how he approaches it will go a long way in determining what he becomes in the next chapter of his football career.
