Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

The last time Patriots fans saw Tom Brady on the field, New England ended up on the wrong side of a 33-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens and a first round playoff exit.

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Re: Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

Let's identify who Tom is alluding to. My nominees include:

* Adalius Thomas specifically, the linebacking corps in general.
* The cornerback and safety units. Not everyone all the time, but the youngsters, especially, didn't show consistent effort.
* Joey Galloway.
* I'm on the fence about Randy Moss, but feel compelled to include him. Same with Ben Watson.

Re: Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

It'll be interesting to see how McCourty fits in, or is able to establish leadership. Already he looks and carries himself as more mature than most of the young DBs on the Pats. It's hard to project a rookie as a leader of a unit, but it'll be a dynamic worth watching. Somehow I don't see Meriweather as a natural leader and guys like Butler and Chung -- I'm not sure I see the same leadership traits as I see in McCourty.

Re: Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

I'm starting to feel really good about the secondary we are putting together.
Butler and McCourty are top level talents and Bodden is solid. The rest of the group ought to net us enough to fill in the blanks.
Meriwhether and Chung have the potential to be a strong pair of safeties for a long time, and we have experienced vets for depth.

McCourty, Butler, Chung, Meriwhether is as talented a group of DBs as we have had here in a long, long time. As long as thier talent equates to football skill, we have a lot to look forward to

Re: Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

I have to "bump" this....... I agree with this assessment.

I think this crop of rookie draft picks, in general, brings a palpable mental toughness with them. Especially looking forward to seeing how Brandon Spikes looks in TC, and into the season. He's got an edginess to him I like.

Lastly, I was very impressed with Alge Crumpler in his interview on the official site. Really, really looking forward to seeing him in a Pats jersey!

Re: Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

I've been frantically trying to find the video of him losing his **** on Galloway on the sidelines. You can clearly see Brady screaming "it's not that ******* hard!" and I'm pretty sure Galloway was benched immediately after.

Re: Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

Just wondering what makes you think that about Butler. He was a two year captain at UConn and told the staff there he was willing to play in the kicking game and on offense in order to help the team.

Re: Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

Didn't mean it as a knock -- before the '09 draft I would have been psyched if they got Chung OR Butler. I'm very optimistic about both of them as far as the talent and character they bring to the team. I think they are both team players, and that is one type of leadership.

I'm just saying what I sense from McCourty is something more, a presence that will inspire other players to follow his lead. Hope that makes sense. Time will tell. (In the same way we might see Spikes be a different type of leader than Mayo among LBs, longterm. Even Belichick used the word "presence" when talking about some of the players in this draft. To be clear: I am talking about being VERY optimistic about this year's draft class, and am not in any way down on last year's.) :)

Re: Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

Thanks for clarifying.

Re: Brady - 'We Weren't a Mentally Tough Team'
 

No sweat. I like the way this team is being built (as Feep50 above says, this year's picks have"palpable mental toughness." Which is even better than "presence.") I just hope it jells while Brady is still in his prime.