Tom Brady is regarded as the GOAT among quarterbacks by many sportswriters, but if this football season has shown us anything it is that Brady is purely a product of the Belichick system put in place 20 years ago that no other team has been able to replicate. It is a system that has produced 9 Super Bowl appearances and 6 wins. Brady often gets the credit, being the quarterback, but Belichick probably could have achieved this incredible milestone with any decent quarterback. After all, who remembers Phil Simms? He guided the New York Giants to a pair of Super Bowl wins under Bill Parcells' system, which Bill Belichick was an integral part of.
Belichick came to New England with Bill Parcells. It was Parcells who turned the Patriots around, leading them to only their second Super Bowl appearance in 1997, where they lost to a resurgent Green Bay Packers led by Brett Favre. Oddly enough, Parcells quit after that year to coach the New York Jets, taking Belichick with him. Parcells would never again repeat his magic. The Patriots floundered for three years until Bob Kraft lured Belichick back to New England in 2000, and the rest as they say is history.
The offensive system Belichick imposed is relatively simple - running high percentage pass and run plays that eat up the clock, while relying on a strong defense to shut down the opposition. Belichick didn't need a great quarterback. He needed one who would follow the playbook, no questions asked. He reached deep into the draft in 2000, selecting the 199th player in Tom Brady. No one thought Brady would amount to a hill of beans, but Bill saw the perfect quarterback in Tom, one he could mold into his image.
Brady defined the prototypical NFL quarterback of the time, and had shown good leadership at Michigan, where he guided the Wolverines to a pair of good years capped off with impressive bowl wins. He had lead feet and scrambled for -150 yards in two seasons. His TD to interception ratio wasn't that great, but Bill would work on that in New England.
It didn't take long for Belichick to mold Brady. Tom sat out his first season and quickly showed his ability in season two, leading the Pats back to the Super Bowl and their first Vince Lombardi trophy. The Pats stumbled the next year, but regained form for two more Super Bowl victories after the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Brady was the MVP in two of those Super Bowls. His "greatness" now firmly established.
Three Super Bowl rings in only five years in the league was very impressive, but what pops out from those years is his rather mediocre statistics. His QB rating was nothing to brag about. He still threw a lot of interceptions, was sacked at least two times per game, and lost more yards than he gained on his lead feet. All the SB wins were close and easily could have gone the other way. What stood out was his ability to lead game-winning drives.
The Patriots cooled off for awhile. Over the next nine years they posted impressive seasons, but only got back to the Super Bowl twice, losing both times to the New York Giants led by Eli Manning. Ironically, Brady was posting his best numbers statistically. He was averaging well over 4000 yards passing per season and put up a whopping 5235 yards in 2011, but the Patriots weren't winning the big one. The only game that counts for Bill Belichick is the Super Bowl.
He wanted the team passing less and running more. This is what won him the first three Super Bowls. Enter LeGarrette Blount, a 250-pound workhorse that gave the Patriots badly needed size and strength in the backfield. The Pats were back in the Super Bowl in 2014, taking the Lombardi trophy from the defending champs Seattle. This was the beginning of the Badass Pats, who would win two more Super Bowls in three attempts, cementing Tom Brady's legacy and leading many sportswriters to call him the greatest quarterback of all time.
This year is shaping up to be Brady's swansong. It hasn't been overly impressive. Brady's numbers have fallen off considerably. His fans blame it on the receivers. Nevertheless, The Pats are 12-3. However, they were firmly beaten by all the AFC division leading teams, which have highly mobile quarterbacks that the New England defense has a very hard time containing. It is doubtful the Patriots will get back to the Super Bowl, but you can never count them out.
Anyone who has followed the game can see this has always been Bill Belichick's team. He rules the Patriots with an iron hand. Anyone who steps out of line is immediately dismissed. Bill views all his players as interchangeable, even the quarterback, but Tom hasn't given Bill any reason to dismiss him. The one brief period of uncertainty was when Belichick drafted Jimmy Garoppolo in 2014, clearly looking to groom him for the position if Tom proved no longer able to deliver. This seemed to spur Brady on, and eventually Bill traded Garoppolo to relieve the tension on the team. It would be interesting if New England faced off against San Francisco in Super Bowl LIV.
It doesn't really matter, as Brady has given Belichick everything he could have asked for in a quarterback. Tom has been the perfect field manager, willing to play the dink and dunk passing game Belichick likes, with much fewer turnovers, and full control of the clock.
It's his defense that worries him. How do the Pats stop a fleet-footed quarterback like Lamar Jackson? This freak of nature has passed for more than 3100 yards and rushed for more than 1200 yards, with a staggering 43 touchdowns along the way and only 8 total turnovers. How does any team stop Jackson?
Tom Brady may very well be the last premier quarterback of his kind. More and more NFL teams are opting for option quarterbacks, as they give defenses fits. The only question in the past had been their longevity, but Russell Wilson is proving durability is no longer an issue, and even if it was there are so many of these fleet-footed quarterbacks now available in the draft that it doesn't really matter. These highly gifted athletes appear to be the quarterbacks of the future.
None of this takes away from Brady's accomplishments, but it serves to highlight that athleticism was never his major calling card. Brady was never fast nor elusive. He was steady and consistent, with a quick release that help mitigate his early high number of sacks. It is doubtful he would have excelled on any other team than Bill Belichick's team. It is doubtful anyone else would have taken him, but here he is arguably the greatest quarterback of all time thanks to 6 Super Bowl rings.
Well, Tom, it is time to take a bow. This season has shown that it is all downhill from here. Bill might sign you again because he has nowhere else to turn. Jarrett Stidham doesn't appear to excite anyone, but then neither did you in your first year in the league.
Well, Tom appears to have punched his time card. Since I wrote this article the Pats lost a season-ending game to Miami, which cost the team a first round bye, and then Tennessee for its earliest exit from the playoffs since 2009. End of dynasty?
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