TOM’S ONLY AGENDA: TRIGGER MORE WINS
No doubt Tom Brady would be thrilled to walk back into Gillette Stadium tomorrow, rejoin his team after spending 30 days away serving his four-game suspension, and take the baton with a perfect record intact.
And even if it’s 3-1, Brady would still feel pretty good about his team and what it accomplished in his absence.
But there’s the notion out there that some part of Brady also has to be somewhat taken aback by how much his presence wasn’t missed.
After all, the Patriots have just continued to roll along, no matter who plays quarterback, whether it’s Brady’s backup Jimmy Garoppolo, or third-stringer Jacoby Brissett. As it is, Brady has always had a massive chip on his shoulder. Drafted in the sixth round, he’s used that as constant motivation. But even with revenge over the excessive Deflategate penalty about to fuel his return, might he also want to remind people who he is, and what they were truly missing the past month?
Those who know Brady believe he’ll want to reestablish his turf, but that would have happened no matter how well Jimmy G or the Pats did while he was banished.
“Tom’s competitive,” ex-Patriots safety Rodney Harrison told the Herald last week. “He wants to let everybody know, if there’s any doubt, ‘Listen, I’m Tom Brady. I’m going to throw four touchdowns, with no turnovers. I’m going to go 22-for-23 for 350 yards to let you guys know, don’t even think about a quarterback controversy.’ ” Patriots Hall of Famer Willie McGinest believes Brady will certainly be motivated to play at a high level, but not because his team survived fine without him. That’s just how he’s always been.
“I don’t think he’s going to feel anyone doubts him, or he has to show he’s still the man, or he’s still the guy,” the NFL Network analyst told the Herald Thursday. “That’s already known. It’s understood. But he’s a competitor. He’s going to want to go out there and play well. That’s who he is.”
Several former teammates believe Brady’s primary inspiration for kicking it up another gear will be more in the Deflategate payback zone, or just being glad to be playing again, than anything else.
“Yeah, I think he’ll be a man on a mission,” former Patriots fullback Heath Evans and fellow NFL Network analyst said last week, “and we’re just gonna have to see where that takes him.”
Harrison cautioned about Brady perhaps getting too amped or hyped up on his return. Part of that is knowing he has a Super Bowl caliber-team behind him. And, at age 39, having watched the young understudies lead a few victories, it’s also knowing he’s on the back end of his career and won’t have many more opportunities to add to his ring collection.
“Tom’s biggest challenge is maintaining a level of poise,” Harrison said, “not getting too anxious, not getting overly hyped and trying to do everything by himself.”
All three former teammates said Cleveland will serve as a good reentry team for Brady when he returns for that Week 5 matchup at FirstEnergy Stadium. Obviously, the winless Browns shouldn’t press the Patriots or Brady with a defense that’s currently ranked near the bottom of the league.
“It’ll be a nice tuneup,” McGinest said, “a nice opportunity for him to get his timing and rhythm back.”
Evans said the Pats’ 3-0 start hasn’t just been about the quarterback play. It’s been about a complementary style of football with defense and special teams excelling, not to mention a strong running game with the offense. And those who might be thinking Brady is easily replaced should think again.
“Do they need him to win 11 games, or do they need him to win a fifth Super Bowl?” Evans asked rhetorically. “That’s what it comes down to, and there’s no one on the face of the planet that’s played the position as well as he’s played it.”
After midnight tonight, Brady will officially return to the Patriots fold, and be allowed back on the premises. If history tells us anything, there’s nothing like a Brady scorned.
Jimmy-ing the lock open
Harrison believes if people are surprised that the Patriots have a chance to go unbeaten during the Brady-less string, it’s because Garoppolo, Brady’s backup the past two years, was a mystery at the outset given he had never started or played any meaningful snaps.
“Nobody knew about Jimmy Garoppolo. You look at all these backup quarterbacks (in the league). Most of the time, they’re garbage out there,” he said. “There’s just a lot of bad quarterback play. We’ve seen it each and every week. So how were we supposed to know Jimmy was going to come in and play as well as he played? Nobody knew that. Heck, he could have gone completely in the other direction . . . and the Patriots would have been in trouble. You just don’t know until they go out there and perform.”
Gase has multiple fears
Dolphins coach Adam Gase, who has had plenty of go-rounds with the Patriots as an assistant coach in the past, was asked to explain the success of the AFC East power. Gase, who has had stops in Detroit, San Francisco, Denver and Chicago, pointed to them getting the most out of everyone they acquire.
“I think they do a great job as far as every guy they seem to bring in, they maximize what that guy has,” Gase said recently. “They adjust to who’s on their roster. There’s not really (an edict), ‘Here’s our scheme and you guys, if you don’t fit in, we’re going to get rid of you.’ They get their guys in the building. They make their roster adjustments, and they do what’s best for them
for that week. When you have a team that is that chameleon, where (as an opponent) you’re not really sure what you’re going to get, it makes it tough.”
Gase said they constantly change looks and coverages, doing things foes haven’t seen.
“It’s one of those things where when you get to the game, you better be on your toes, because they’re going to find a weakness,” he said. “They’re going to expose it, and they’re going to go after it if you don’t crack it.”
Talib joins elite company
Last week against the Colts,
Aqib Talib picked off Andrew Luck and raced to the end zone for the ninth touchdown interception return of his career.
Along with helping the Broncos to a victory, it also allowed him to climb the all-time ranks for career pick-sixes, tying the former Patriot for fourth with Hall of Fame defensive backs Deion Sanders,
Aeneas Williams and Ken Houston. Talib reflected on the accomplishment during a conference call with Tampa reporters last week.
“When I started my career, I always set goals for myself,” Talib said. “First, I wanted to be a star in the league. Then I wanted to make a Pro Bowl. Then All-Pro, win the Super Bowl and things like that. As you complete those, some of those goals, then you start to think about (the) Hall of Fame and stuff.
“It’s hard not to be aware of stuff like that. You pay attention to what you do in the league, what you’re considered in the league. So I’m definitely aware of the numbers I put up.”
Mangini regrets Spygate
In an interview with the New York Post last week, ex-Jets and Browns coach Eric Mangini said he wishes Spygate hadn’t played out the way it did.
“Spygate is a big regret,” Mangini said. “It wasn’t supposed to go down the way it went down.”
The way Mangini tells it, he just wanted to scare the Patriots into stopping their practice of taping signals from other teams. Somehow Mangini, a former Pats assistant coach and defensive coordinator who was mentored by Bill Belichick, didn’t think it would be reported to the league. However, Mike Tannenbaum, the then-Jets general manager, was only too happy to report Belichick, costing the Pats forfei- ture of a first-round pick and with some hefty fines.
It’s nine years after Spygate, and Mangini, who isn’t coaching this year after spending the past three years with the 49ers, hates that his relationship with Belichick has been forever severed.
“I cared about him,” Mangini said. “I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t want to hurt the Patriots. They were a huge part of my life, too, and the Kraft family. The Krafts were always great to me. It wasn’t like I was thinking I really want to get these guys. My thought was I don’t want to put my team at a competitive disadvantage, no matter how small.”
One more tidbit? Mangini doesn’t believe the Pats’ illegal taping had any effect on wins and losses.
“There was no great value in what they were doing,” Mangini said. “It wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth it to me personally. It wasn’t worth it to the relationship.”
QBs: Mind over matter
Jets receiver Brandon Marshall, speaking last week on Showtime’s “Inside the NFL,” on what it takes for a rookie quarterbacks to be successful: “The one thing that we keep talking about is the physical attributes. How strong the guy’s arm is. Can he throw it with touch? Does he throw a ball with accuracy? We talk about all these things over and over again, but the one thing that I’ve learned in my 11 years of the NFL is that you guys have to be CEOs. You guys have to be able to manage people.
“There are different personalities. You might have an alpha male at the wide receivers position that’s asking for the ball every single time. How do you manage that? There’s a lot of stress. The mental part is what separates these guys.”
‘Brock Star’ tuning it out
Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler seems a bit sensitive about people criticizing his ability to read defenses and lock onto specific receivers too much.
The former Bronco has three touchdown passes and four interceptions entering today’s game against Tennessee.
“I think that’s hilarious, to be honest with you,” he told the Houston Chronicle. “The critique comes from a whole lot of people that don’t know my read on that play. They’ve probably never actually sat in an offensive meeting in their life, let alone a quarterback meeting in the National Football League.
“That’s why I don’t look at Twitter. That’s why — no offense to anybody (media) in here — I don’t watch anything. I don’t read anything.” . . . The Jets claimed tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins on waivers last week after he was cut by the Buccaneers following his second DUI arrest. Needless to say, he’s going to be on a short leash.
“With the situations he’s been in, he’s going to sink or swim on his own,” Jets coach Todd Bowles said. “We brought in the player. He has a chance to clean his act up, and we’ll see what happens.”