The fact of the matter is , fellas, that the proverbial Emperor hasn't exactly been richly dressed for a few years now. Brady had slowed down a ton in the last few years and was relying more and more on having excellent supporting talent to get the job done, especially after 2016 or so. Certainly you have to give a lot of credit for SB53 to the defense, and especially the secondary, rather than the quarterback. Dude's still got one heck of a football mind, but the body is finally going, and it's been more and more obvious as the years move forward.
We are not losing Brady in his prime, we're losing his 2008+ Favre years, where he'll string a few reminiscent plays together and struggle badly in between them. We were already starting to see that happen last year, and it's not going to get better from here.
Nothing could replace Brady in his prime. But that's not the guy we're trying to replace. A young quarterback with some new ideas and a whole lot of energy and drive can potentially replace the guy we had last year. Personally I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the master tactician (McD) and master strategist (BB) come up with for Stidham. I think this will wind up turning to our advantage