You can't use Tom's age as an excuse.
I'm one of the biggest TB fans on here and he's playing bad for his standards
I don't look at it the same way. I think that Herbert, Mac and Brady are all facing similar challenges: bad OL & poor coaching (play schemes). Mac and Brady have good Ds. Herbert doesn't. Mac has a decent run game. Brady and Herbert don't.
Given the above, Mac has the best conditions since he has a good defense and decent run game to support him. Brady is in between since he does have a good defense. Herbert is worse off w/o the defense support the other two have.
To me, Herbert is excelling given the above challenges, Brady is performing but should be doing better than he is, and Mac is underperforming. No excuses for any of them. All three are veteran NFL QBs. Mac gets a pass because its only his 2nd year but Herbert only has 3. Brady gets zero excuses.
BTW, Herbert's 2nd year was very similar to Mac's, bad OL, new schemes, new bad OC, etc. He excelled last season with one of the worse defenses in the league. That's why I'm not buying all these excuses being made for either Mac or Brady.
Both Mac and Herbert are facing tougher divisional competition as well. Brady's divisional competition is a cake walk.