How good was Brady in 2001

[sb1]

He was solid but he had help....he did his job

the defense gave up more than 17 points 4 times the entire year...his job was to not screw it up and he was good at that

Brady clearly had the reins on him but I think he did really well for what he was asked to do.

I think A. Smith's contributions were extremely underrated on this team. Take him out of the equation and I suspect Brady wouldn't have done quite as well running the offense.

 

[sb1]

He was outstanding considering what he had to work with:

- Jermaine Wiggins iirc was the #1 TE. Heck we have Gronk now and people still talk about TE like it was a major need before the trade with Indy, what about THAT YEAR?

- Brown/Patten are good as your 2 and 4 options, but as your 1 and 2? Yikes!

- Run game was solid but average, nothing that's going to cover up a weak passing game or carry the offense. Even today's Brady I am not sure would throw 30 tds with that cast ( I think he threw 18 in 14 games so that's around 20 if u prorate it to a full season). Winning a super bowl and the clutch drives against Oakland/ St Louis makes it an outstanding year.

Yeah he improved by 03/04 BUT he also had Givens / Branch by 03 and Dillon in 04.

Different era back then. 20 seems weak now but it wasn't bad for back then.

 

[sb1]

I wonder if Rod Woodson would have a different opinion today than (4:19)...

Link
Tom Brady ranked No. 21 of all time

 

[Armchair Quarterback]

I think that's a little hard on Bledsoe. Bledsoe wasn't a bad quarterback, and he wasn't the problem. He just wasn't the solution to the problem in the way that Brady was. Bledsoe was a quarterback who could win football games but would need a lot of help and a great year to win Superbowls. When Brady is gone, and our quarterback is much more ordinary, I think we'll find ourselves looking much more charitably at the Bledsoe era.

We knew what we had in 01, we had a young quarterback with a good base of talent and was demonstrating that he had no fear, was cool under pressure, and could execute on command as long as the players around him did their jobs. Maybe we didn't know he'd be one of the all time greats, but it was pretty obvious that we had a special kid. Most rookies don't carry even a very good team to and through the Superbowl based on intelligence, clock management and execution under pressure in the way TB12 did. He came into the playoffs that season looking like a 10 year veteran and it only got better from there.

Bledsoe clearly was the problem, how could you even say wasn't?

By the 2000's Bledsoe regressed to the point where he was a total liability. Whatever people's opinions are of Brady play in 2001 is, it was light years better than Bledsoe's.

 

[Simpelton]

Brady would have been light years ahead of everyone. You don't have a 5-11 season because the only gap in your franchise is at quarterback

 

[Uncle Rico]

Stat this, stat that......I saw very early on in 2001 that Brady had"it". I saw his greatness before his career proved it. I think a lot of people did.

Is that you, Pete Sheppard?

I do think that with Brady you saw a sense of the game that transcended stats early on. The stats came eventually - certainly starting in 2007. But I still remember Brady's first start seeing a defender coming around the corner and, after years of watching Bledsoe, I braced for the hit. But Brady just stepped up in the pocket, gave a little should flick, and made the play. That's the sort of "little" difference he's made from day one.