Poll: Tom Brady peak season

[titletownpats]

Bolded happened in 2015. 2013 was the game with all those terrible receivers (IE Collie and Company). They lost by ten.

That’s right. Thanks for the correction

 

[tasmlab]

This season we'll get to see the most experienced Brady of his entire career.

 

[A Defiant Goose]

I always felt that 2010 or 2011 was his best season. Can't remember which one he had a 9:1 TD-INT ratio. Whatever one it was, that was peak Brady IMO. 2007 was impressive but he had Moss, Welker, Stalworth, Gaffney, Watson...2010 didn't have slouches with Gronk and Hernandez and Welker but it was way more impressive IMO. I think he was unanimous MVP then too.

ETA: If peak is to mean at what point did he start regressing, yea 2016 was probably his peak. I guess

 

[Froob]

I'll go with 2016. 27-2 TD-INT ratio is crazy in 12 games. Did it against top notch competition and went 14-1.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Brady has been his best ever since "We're onto Cincinnati." It's no coincidence the team went to 4 of 5 Super Bowls during this time and barely missed going to all 5. I think all those years of experience combined with his constant desire to improve created the guy who NFL players have voted the best player in the league 2 years running.

Amongst these Himalayan seasons recently, his Everest is probably 2016. 2015's failed repeat attempt felt like unfinished business, especially after the deflategate nonsense in the original attempt to suspend him. Then he gets booed in his hometown during the SB50 pregame ceremony (Broncos fans: Yeah, go poke the bear. Good idea), followed by finally getting suspended to start '16. He always is thinking title-or-bust every year, but '16 had to mean a little more than usual...

2016 starts and we see clips of Tom working out in private during his suspension. He wants to come in without missing a beat. Then he does so in Cleveland, torching them in his first action 5 weeks into the season. He practically runs the table the rest of the way, but then disaster happens: He loses Gronk again for the year. It's 2012-2013 all over again, with a playoff loss looming thanks to an offense that's really going tho miss Gronk in at least one of their three playoff games...

And then that game happened: SB51. The Pats ran into a team that had peaked in the playoffs and had them down 28-3 midway through the 3rd quarter. Without Gronk to worry about, Quinn had Rocky Alford (who played the game of his life) lock down Edelman, often with help from Deon Jones on middle patterns. With Edelman neutralized and the running game unreliable, Atlanta was about to steamroll their 3rd playoff opponent for their first title...

And then Brady went Keyser Soze on the team, their fanbase, the NFL fanbase outside of New England in general and on Roger Goodell. In the process, he didn't just drop the mic on the Montana vs. Brady GOAT debate: He spiked the mic so hard it's buried in the Earth's core. The mountains don't get any higher than that.

Regards,
Chris

P.S. SB51: All. Without. Gronk. This cannot be overstated.

 

[Zarozzor]

2016 and 2010 are peak Brady. 2010 he won unanimous MVP throwing to Welker coming off an ACL, rookie Hernandez and Gronk, and Branch. They also played 9 Top 10 Defenses which is still a record I believe.

 

[Steve102]

I honestly can't answer. It's like picking your favorite child.

 

[VectorPrime]

If we’re taking mentality and other intangibles into account then 2016. Close to being his best statistical season combined with him having the largest chip on his shoulder of his career powered by sheer spite to destroy the doubters.

 

[Shockt327]

Brady has been his best ever since "We're onto Cincinnati."

This.

 

[maust]

So you think one of Brady's future seasons will surpass the Atlanta season, 16-0, efficiency of 2010 and his three-punch beauties vs Ravens, Colts and Seahawks?

 

[dannydyn]

He hasn't peaked yet.

 

[everlong]

You needed check boxes so I could select all not radio buttons so I could only choose one.

 

[signbabybrady]

 

[sean10mm]

I think Brady's best combination of experience and physical ability was 2013-15, roughly. By that point he'd really seen it all, and his intermediate throws in particular were still absolute bullets that looked effortless. People wrote of 2013 as a decline when it really was just Brady being stuck with a bunch of scrubs to throw to who all washed out of the league at lightning speed. Remember when Josh Boyce had to take meaningful snaps? But Brady's actual play in that season was full of EPIC moments. I mean come on, that overtime win over the Greatest Offense of All Time Forever and Ever Broncos, and the last-second TD to beat the Saints, were career highlights for sure.

2016-present has seen Brady achieve some kind of transcendent mental ability, compensating for a gradual decline in absolute throwing ability, to the point where he's played some of his best seasons ever in spite of his arm not quite being what it used to be.

 

[Caretaker]

I said it ironically. Should've used a green font

 

[SBLIII]

2019.

 

[upstater1]

For regular season, I liked the 2012 performance best. I just remember Brady always picking the right guy and throwing to Hernandez, Gronk, Welker, Woodhead, Brandon Lloyd, and even Edelman caught 20+, most of these guys were wide open almost all the time. Brady's stats would have been obscene if the Patriots didn't decide to run the ball from the 1 for 26 TDs, with Brady running 4 of those in himself. Stevan Ridley had 12 rushing TDs. 12!!!!!!!!!!! Add 26 rushing TDs to Brady's 35 throwing, and that was one of the sickest offensive displays in NFL history.

Sadly, in the playoffs, Gronk had the first of his many NFL injuries, as the first game saw him land on his arm and begin the nightmare streak of surgeries and problems. The Patriots were depantz'd against the Ravens. I still say that if Gronk hadn't experienced that freak injury, we would have seen offensive fireworks like you can't imagine against the 49ers in the Super Bowl.

 

[Antdawg]

I'll go with 2016. 27-2 TD-INT ratio is crazy in 12 games. Did it against top notch competition and went 14-1.

Yeah, I mean, it's gotta be 2016. He played with a chip on his shoulder all year and even though it gets talked about a lot, I still feel as though most fans don't grasp exactly how difficult it is to come back from 28-3 down in a SuperBowl. So much so that I would say most years, Brady can't overcome a deficit like that, but in 2016, he was peak Brady. 2017 supports this theory with another elite SB performance against Eagles. Those types of performances simply get multiplied exponentially as it pertains to evaluating a player's effectiveness or "peak".

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I said "Other," by which I meant "Next Season."

 

[Antdawg]

I hate to say it, but I think when we look back 10-15 years from now, we'll see 2016-2017 as his peak as a pure QB, regardless of who's around him. There was a noticeable drop off in 2018 and father time is what it is. I still take him over any other QB in the league going into 2019, but I hope the decline doesn't worsen. The guy is human.