43-year-old Brady continues to defy conventional wisdom
Even at dusk of his 21st NFL season, Tom Brady still can throw shade and spirals with the same crispness.
And darn near lethal potency.
Take his Twitter response when Tony Dungy ranked Brady sixth on his personal list of opposing quarterbacks he deemed toughest to defend: Brady simply tweeted a photo of the Colts’ banner displayed at Lucas Oil Stadium that reads, “2014 AFC Finalist.”
Brady’s Patriots topped Indianapolis (then coached by Dungy) 45-7 in that season’s AFC title game.
“I was just having fun,” Brady said Wednesday.
“I was only referring to him as the Indy head coach, not as the Buccaneers head coach, so it was nothing personal. Coach Dungy knows I love him; I was just giving him a little grief. He gave me a little grief, I gave him a little grief. It was all in good fun.”
Yet that little cyberspace jab served to pry open — just enough to see without getting singed — the cauldron of competitive fire still blazing within a guy who, by any logical measure, should be occupying an analyst’s chair inside a sleek studio by now.
By some accounts inside the building, Brady remains the consummate chop-buster, and a slave to strict diet and meticulous preparation.
At 43, he also remains one of the planet’s best at his chosen craft.
“It’s just a unique thing, man,” said Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, 2 years younger than his quarterback.
For all the scathing criti
cism of the offensive system to which he has been entrusted, Brady still is performing at a level belying his birth certificate.
His 32 touchdown passes rank fourth in the NFL. With one more, he ties the Bucs’ single-season record set by Jameis Winston last year. His 3,886 passing yards rank fifth on the franchise’s single-season list. He needs only 205 Saturday at Detroit to catapult to second place.
“He don’t get enough credit for what he’s doing,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians said.
And while his completion percentage (65.1) ranks only 22nd in the league, and some of his advanced metrics remain equally modest, the fact remains Brady has delivered on what the fran
chise sought of him when it signed him to a two-year deal in March.
He has elevated the Buccaneers to the playoff echelon, or at least the cusp of it, imbuing confidence in peers who never previously sniffed the postseason.
“His focus on the details, the little things, gets him through,” Leftwich said.
Tampa Bay clinches its first playoff berth in 13 years with a win Saturday in Detroit, where the six-time Super Bowl winner will play his 300th NFL regular-season game, seek his third consecutive turnover-free game, and try for his third 300-yard passing effort in the last four contests.
He threw for 320 yards in the second half of last week’s 31-27 come-from-behind win in Atlanta. That goahead 46-yard scoring pass to Antonio Brown, the one that traveled 49.6 yards in the air (per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats), couldn’t have landed more snugly in Brown’s midsection.
“It’s so impressive seeing how strong his arm is, how accurate he is, even at 43,” Bucs receiver Chris Godwin said.
“He’s still at the top of his game, he’s still able to really produce. That’s a testament to just how hard he works and how well he keeps his body in shape.”
And bottom line, the dude hasn’t diminished. Not even in a vertical offense some insist remains ill-suited for him. Not even in a year when he was forced to digest a new system without the benefit of one organized team activity, a minicamp or a single preseason snap.
“Every season has different things that challenge you in different ways,” Brady said. “This one has been, I think, a challenge for everybody around the world, and we’re managing it, we’re dealing with it as best we can. We’re trying to make improvements, trying to make them on a daily basis.”
Presuming the Bucs don’t take a substantial hit in free agency, a more conventional offseason program points to an even more polished offense in 2021.
Not to say the present day doesn’t shimmer. The G.O.A.T. has still got it.
“To watch him play when we protect him and put him in the situations where he can play like he did in the second half of that ballgame (on Sunday),” Arians said, “he’s still as good as there is in this league.”