ESPN First Take: "Is Brady on the decline?"

VrabelJr said:

Because you don't talk about players getting old when they are only 29?

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Yes, and people who use that logic are stupid.

Decline - maybe.

However, Brady already this season has been batted around like a piñata at a birthday party.

Nobody would have success behind that line with pretty much only one option to throw to in Edelman with the occasional pass to a hobbled Gronk. Trying to compare Brady and Peyton now is just silly. Noway Peyton puts up big numbers on this team.

It's not rocket science...Brady is getting older so some of his skill set is either declining now or will be soon. Let's just get that offensive line fixed and take this thing one game at a time...

Not a bad segment.

One of the little details I noticed was this; Bayless and Stephen A both went down the list of Pats receivers during their monologues, but neither of them mentioned Amendola.

Just thought that was interesting...

EDIT - For what it's worth, I share Stephen A's take on it.

One suspects that the moment the OL finds consistency and does their job, with 3 seconds to throw the football, Tom Brady will be just fine. If he's missing throws when the OL clicks, then we'll know it's Tom Brady.

I agree with Stephen A. Smith its one thing to not give Brady WR's but to take away his protection IMO is just crazy

ausbacker said:

One suspects that the moment the OL finds consistency and does their job, with 3 seconds to throw the football, Tom Brady will be just fine. If he's missing throws when the OL clicks, then we'll know it's Tom Brady.

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I agree, but there's another thing to keep in mind here, in regards to some of ridiculous `points` of Brady's detractors.

When the offensive line is playing that bad, it's going to affect plays where they do give him some protection. Like Jerome said, there was one hit where Brady took it full contact, flush, to the back. This is going to throw people off their game.

The offensive line doesn't need to only protect Brady, but they need to do it consistently that Tom has faith in them. If he gets creamed every time, then the one time he gets protected and misses a throw, some might say, "Well, what about that time?"

Well, Tom isn't watching the game on TV. If the guy is getting destroyed, even on plays where he doesn't, he's still going to be worried about it, he's still going to rush the pass, he's still going to be off, because in his mind, at any second, he's going to get annihilated from behind, a blindside, whatever.

IMO if you take your fandom out of it. You give Brady even an average NFL line and recievers... and he will eat you up.

At the moment he has a bottom third line and a bottom third receiving core. Is it really that surprising that he is struggling?

There is merit to Steven A Smith's argument that BB and Kraft have to an extent said "well we have TB so we don't need to give him as much help as we would other QB's. Let's focus on Defense and Brady will always find a way". Now it's not that simple but it's a valid discussion to have.

I thin long story short Brady's poor play is due to outside factors. We saw him tearing it up in camp... but as soon as game time hit and the Line allowed all that pressure... that's when people started asking these questions.

Brady's attitude is what sucks right now.

You look at Brady when he was younger. He was poised and resilient. Those were two of his best attributes. These days he looks bitter, frustrated and angry.

Russel Wilson's attitude right now reminds me of Young Brady, and he's winning.

MrNathanDrake said:

Brady's attitude is what sucks right now.

You look at Brady when he was younger. He was poised and resilient. Those were two of his best attributes. These days he looks bitter, frustrated and angry.

Russel Wilson's attitude right now reminds me of Young Brady, and he's winning.

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"Attitude" doesn't magically create protection and competent receivers. How much change in attitude was there from Brady in 06 as opposed to 07?

Maybe the change is that he had Grade A receivers to work with. and that's why the Pats offense took off, do you think?

Snake Eyes said:

"Attitude" doesn't magically create protection and competent receivers. How much change in attitude was there from Brady in 06 as opposed to 07?

Maybe the change is that he had Grade A receivers to work with. and that's why the Pats offense took off, do you think?

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I would say that a competent offensive line would determine whether the issue is Tom Brady or the wide receivers, not named Julian Edelman of course.

The UDFA "well" on the offensive line is one of the primary issues:

Wendell
Connolly
Devey
Kline

as well as an offensive tackle playing out of position (Cannon).

Brady can bust his ass at practice and work hard in the off season but of course at age 37 he is on the decline. The O-line is a mess right now and it is clearly messing up Brady s games. He is getting sacked, knocked down and hurried all game which is leading to accuracy issues. Hell, even when he is not being pressured his is still throwing bad passes because he feels like he is always on the verge of being hit.
Beside Edleman the receivers (when he actually has enough time to throw) are largely ineffective the whole game which is just compounding the problem.

Brady is still a top 5 QB but like I said weeks ago: Brady looks much much worse than he is because of the line and receivers.

Edit:

Steven A. Smith absolutely positively nails it.

Dont really care to watch the video personally whether its a good towards the pats or not. Iam just tired of this becoming a topic every week when he doesnt play well. Just say he has sucked. Like Aaron Rodgers has. Doesnt have to be because he is 37. Can be because of oline/WR/himself. The age argument creates a story of him retiring,BB replcing him etc and thats more juicy to everyone so they keep propping this up every week.

Brady also hasn't thrown a pick in three games behind horrendous protection he is still the master of not turning the ball over which is crucial

I love BB, but I'm amazed that they went into camp with the garbage OL then traded Mankins. Brady is getting too old to be taking chances with his protection. We need him fresh for a playoff run. At this rate he might not last half a season. If I'm feeling panicked about Brady's protection every snap, I can't imagine how he feels. Then on top of this they have total garbage at WR outside of Edelman still, so even when he does get time, there's nowhere to throw the ball. He can't even hand the ball off to a RB before the defense is already through the OL. I love defense and it clearly wins championships, but you at least have to protect your f*cking QB.

Truth is, no one did because no one believed for a second that a stiff like Devey would be a starter pushing other players out of their normal positions.

So we're clear, the only reason media morons are asking this question and proclaiming it in sports articles is purely for money, ratings, and hits.

"The Patriots offensive line sucks" is not a headline that's going to create a buzz.

"Tom Brady sucks" is a feeding frenzy for the bitter that have been getting blown out by us year after year.

That's all this is. The alternative to that is people are genuinely stupid, and I just find that hard to believe.

What's sad is when Patriot fans start believing their troll bait.

Satchboogie3 said:

. If I'm feeling panicked about Brady's protection every snap, I can't imagine how he feels. Then on top of this they have total garbage at WR outside of Edelman still, .

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Your first sentence completely nullifies your second statement making it a fallacy.

MrNathanDrake said:

Brady's attitude is what sucks right now.

You look at Brady when he was younger. He was poised and resilient. Those were two of his best attributes. These days he looks bitter, frustrated and angry.

Russel Wilson's attitude right now reminds me of Young Brady, and he's winning.

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Brady's always been fierce, intense, and downright angry at times on the field. His extreme level of competitiveness is what makes him great and always has. He's never been a passive, quiet, expressionless wallflower on the sidelines like Wilson is. Ever.