Brady to use bye to recharge

If his 19th NFL season has been at all more taxing than any of the previous 18, Tom Brady isn’t willing to say so.

Even if his play on the field through the Patriots’ first 10 games this season might suggest otherwise.

Last season, at age 40, Brady became the oldest player in NFL history to earn regular-season MVP honours.

A year later, he finds himself in the throes of some his worst passing numbers in three seasons as the Patriots head into their bye week. What’s unclear is whether it’s an aberration or perhaps the first subtle signs of decline for the 41-year-old quarterback.

It’s not as if Brady is having a disastrous year. Despite coming off a humbling 34-10 loss to Tennessee, New England still enters its bye with a 7-3 record and is on its way to capturing its 10th straight AFC East title.

Brady is still completing 65 per cent of his passes and has 17 touchdowns.

He’s done it despite having to break in new players in the receiving group, dealing with injuries at running back and seeing tight end Rob Gronkowski battle ankle and back injuries.

“We just haven’t had that, I would say, overall consistency and the ability to practice together,” Brady said. “That’s not an excuse . ... A lot of teams deal with injuries and moving parts and bringing different people in. That’s just part of football. But we’re trying to adjust and adapt like everyone else. Some weeks it’s been better than others.”

Brady said he’ll be using the time off to recharge going into the stretch run of the regular season.

“We’ve had a lot of weeks of football and we’ve got some really important ones coming up,” he said. “So hopefully we can learn from the things that have happened over the course of the season and use them to our advantage moving forward.”