Are The Patriots Done?
A two decade run and they’re still relevant, but for how long?
There are two people synonymous with the New England Patriots — Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. While both are still with the Pats, it’s Brady that appears to be slowing down from a statistical perspective. But is he really?
At first glance, Brady’s having a poor year. As of week 14, his TD% is at a career low 3.6%. His QBR is the lowest of his career, since they started calculating it, at 51.0 — which would place him 20th in the league, just behind rookie Daniel Jones. Of QBs who have started at least 5 games, his 6.6 yards per attempt places him 29th in the league, only ahead of Carson Wentz (who’s having a sneaky bad year himself), Daniel Jones, Mitchell Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph. The numbers tell quite the story.
What they don’t tell you is that Brady just doesn’t have the weapons he once did. At various points this season, he’s had Demaryius Thomas, Antonio Brown, and Josh Gordon — all solid at some point in their careers, though likely all on the downside themselves and now he doesn’t even have those veteran receivers to rely on. His only reliable weapons have been Julian Edelman and James White and in recent games, defenses have been scheming to stop them both. Mohamed Sanu hasn’t been delivering and he’s getting nothing out of rookies Jakobi Meyers and N’Keal Harry, and since Rob Gronkowski has retired, he’s getting nothing out of his tight ends either.
They say it’s lonely at the top, but for Brady, it must feel much lonelier at the bottom. It’s an interesting place where the Pats are still an elite team, but only because of the defense. Brady and the offense cannot seem to consistently get anything going and while Brady has been through that before, he’s always struck fear into the hearts of the opponents. This year however, defenses appear to be champing at the bit for a chance to knock Brady down a peg, and especially lately, they’ve been doing just that.
What does it all mean? Does it mean that when the playoffs come, Brady and the Pats will face a quick exit? Or does it mean that the Pats are taking it easy and will turn it up a notch once the playoffs begin? If you ask me, I will tell you one thing I’ve learned as a long suffering Bills fan — until Brady hangs it up, never count him out.
