He isn’t better than he’s ever been; he’s roughly the same. Perhaps a very slight decline in mobility, and a lot more timing issues adjusting to the new Gronk Lite, Gordon, Patterson, and a slower Hogan. He lost Amendola, essentially the Gronk we knew, and Cooks...their three best receivers from 2017. I don’t feel I need to make excuses for him because his play has been excellent as usual.
The guy has arguably been playing better statistically every year since 2013... expectations are impossible...plateau or temporary decline from that level is inevitable at any age.
He’s been throwing off his back foot like that, quite often, since roughly 2012/13...you just haven’t noticed. Seriously.
The Miami game is a good example of how taken for granted he is. All you hear about is one play he screwed up. He threw for almost 400 yards, 3 TDS, 0 INTs and made incredible clutch plays on third downs late in the game, then threw a dagger down the sideline to Gordon for a PI call. That’s about as iced as the game can be. Somehow people are still whining that he cost them 3 points. He got 34 and was an assassin when it mattered most. People seem so fickle. If the Patriots has stopped a 70 yard TD and were 10-4 right now still in the hunt for the one seed, the perspective of Brady is completely different.