Here's what I'm thinking: while the contents of the phone he used from November to February was not available, a complete log of who Brady texted and called was available. The NFL could see from this if Brady had ever contacted JJ or JM in some way that was somehow not on their phones too, as well as all other parties he contacted. In addition, his prior phone had all contents available, so... If the NFL thinks he's hiding something by destroying the phone, they should be able to point to a specific phone number that Brady had contacted as somehow suspicious. They can't just say "we don't know who he talked to, he destroyed the phone", because they do know who he talked to, and if none of them is reasonably suspicious, then this holds no water.