Tom Brady is making the rounds in preparation for his ascension from the field to Fox's No. 1 NFL booth, and it's clear he'll hit the airwaves with strong opinions on his area of expertise.
In an interview with Yahoo Sports to promote his upcoming partnership Hertz rental cars(?), Brady explained that quarterback play across football is getting worse because the position is simultaneously over-coached and under-coached.
“I think the quarterbacking has gone backwards a little bit in the NFL. I don’t think it’s improved. I don’t think the teaching’s improved. I think maybe the physical fundamentals might be a little bit improved because there’s better information out there for quarterbacks to study on mechanics. But I don’t think quarterbacks really are really field generals right now like they used to be.
"It’s a broad statement, certainly. But I had total control. I had all the tools I needed. I was coached that way. I was developed to have the tools that I needed to go on the field so that whenever something came up, I had the right play, the right formation, the right audible, the right check at the line — to ultimately take control of the 11 guys on offense and get us into a good, positive play.”
Tom Brady's thesis of quarterback play seems to be this: There's so much movement in football, both by players constantly search for a spot to play immediately and by coaches driven by pressure to win now, that the coaching has been watered down in order to get players on the field immediately, and this has robbed today's QBs of the opportunity to attain total mastery of the position.
"I think now, there’s this try-to-control element from the sideline between the coaches, where they want to have the control. And they’re not teaching and developing the players the right tools so that they can go out on the field and make their own decisions that are best suited for the team. When I looked at Peyton Manning, he was a guy that I looked up to because he had ultimate control. And I think the game’s regressed in a little bit of that way, based on what’s happened in high school football, college football and then the NFL’s getting a much lesser developed quarterback at this point."
It's an interesting thought, to be sure, and not one you hear often. Opponents of the idea will point to Patrick Mahomes's Michael Jordan-like trajectory with three Super Bowls by age 28; to the instant success of guys like Joe Burrow and CJ Stroud at the game's highest level is proof that the QB Development Industry is doing something right.
Statistically, quarterback play is on a trajectory that points straight upward. Below is the median NFL QB's rating (defined as the exact middle of NFL starters, 16th of 32 or 15th of 30, pre-expansion) over the past 30 years:
1993: Jeff George -- 76.3 rating
2003: Donovan McNabb -- 79.6 rating
2013: Cam Newton -- 88.8 rating
2023: Josh Allen -- 92.2 rating
This is by no means a definitive rebuke of Brady's argument. Today's quarterbacks are undoubtedly benefitting from developments in offensive strategy, changes in overall philosophy, QB- and WR-friendly rules changes, and dozens of other, smaller advancements that have made Josh Allen's life easier than Jeff George's.
But also, Brady seems to be measuring with a stick where only Peyton Manning and himself can look good by comparison. It's a bit like arguing that since Michael Jordan was better than LeBron James, the NBA was better in the 90s than it is today. No QBs today may have attained the level of field general-ness that he and Manning achieved, but how about his own peers? Was Jake Delhomme meeting Brady's standards of QB mastery? Is it possible that Brady and Manning are two of the best to ever do it and 99.8 percent of their peers will fall short in comparison?
Someone as driven for greatness as Brady would accept such an answer, nor should he. It's possible Brady is right, that football has been "dumbed down" to a point where adequate quarterback play is accessible to many, but true greatness is much harder to achieve.
On this point, the game is moving even further in the direction of coaches holding the quarterback's hand, with in-helmet communication now permissible at the college level up until 15 seconds remaining on the play clock.
Finally, Brady argues that the system's breakdown is bigger than any one person, or any level of football.
“It’s on everybody. It’s on players, it’s on coaches, it’s on the league, it’s on the colleges. Think about it: There’s no continuity anymore. Not even in high school. Not even in college. There’s no programs that are developing [quarterbacks] in college. They’re just teams now. So you play one year here, one year here, one year here. Well, how can you be good at something in a job if you’re only working at one place for one year, then going to another place for one year, then to another place for one year?”
“Coaches are doing the same thing. So they’re trying to go in and develop a program and develop people, but they don’t have the time because of the pressure from social media and the pressure from media to get it fixed right away. So now they’re saying, all right — rather than draft a quarterback and say I want to develop you — they’re saying, ‘We’re going to draft a quarterback and ask the quarterback, what do you do well? We just gotta do that so I can try to win some games so I don’t get fired.’”
On this, Brady reflects on his own career. He didn't start for his high school's varsity team until his junior year. He didn't start for Michigan until his fourth year on campus, and even then he was in near constant competition with Drew Henson. He redshirted his rookie year with the New England Patriots, and didn't enter the starting lineup until an early season injury to Drew Bledsoe in 2001. The rest, of course, is history.
Brady's development was aided by good fortune. He played for Lloyd Carr throughout his five seasons at Michigan. His time in New England coincided with Bill Belichick's through the first 20 of his 23 NFL seasons. If any of those details were different, perhaps Brady's career alters a different course. With today's transfer rules in place, perhaps he returns home to Cal at some point between 1995 and 1998. The QB taken ahead of Brady, Spergon Wynn, went at pick 183 to the Cleveland Browns. Not even Jesus with Paul Bunyon's throwing arm is winning six Super Bowls in Cleveland.
It's clear Brady has been thinking deeply about the state of quarterback play in his time between the field and the booth. If he's thought half as deeply about the other 21 spots on the field, I can't wait to hear what he has to say.