Phil Simms on Tom Brady: ‘He just keeps mastering a little more each year’
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady leaves the field after defeating the Jets.
COMMENTARY
I have this theory that with each passing Sunday (or occasional Thursday) of this Patriots season is accelerating toward becoming a conviction.
It’s been rattling around in the vast region of my skull reserved for sports opinions, statistics, memories and minutiae for a while now, at least since the Patriots dropped 40 points on Rex Ryan’s allegedly tough Bills defense in Week 2.
The Patriots’ 30-23 come-from-behind victory in Week 7 over those genuinely tough Jets, which in style if not magnitude reminded me somewhat of the offense’s this-is-our-time seizing of the game in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 49, only emboldened the thought, which is this:
The Patriots offense has never been as ruthlessly adaptable as it is now.
That may not sound like the highest praise – adaptable, hey, now there’s a flashy adjective — but I’m telling you, it truly is an extraordinary acknowledgement or revelation considering the variety of electrifying offenses Tom Brady has helmed since becoming the starting back in Week 2 of the 2001 season.
Consider the history and evolution of the Patriots’ offense. Excluding 2008, when Bernard Pollard blew up Brady’s left knee in the first quarter of the opener, the Patriots have finished in the top six in the NFL in points scored nine times in Brady’s 13 essentially full seasons as a starter. They have never finished worse than 12th (2003). They have not finished below fourth since 2009, and they have led the league three times (2007, ’10, ’12).
“The Patriots offense is a phenomenon to watch, and it has been since Tom Brady has been the one running it,’’ said Phil Simms, who along with Jim Nantz will call CBS’s broadcast of Thursday’s Patriots-Dolphins matchup. “Even in today’s game, there are a lot of big numbers. But the Patriots don’t just put up yards. They put up yards and points. Always points.’’
Simms, who along with longtime broadcast partner Nantz has called in the vicinity of 80 Patriots games during the Brady/Bill Belichick era, noted the obvious — that Brady has been been the one extraordinary constant in all of those seasons. But he also acknowledged that the offense around him has shape-shifted has depending upon the personnel that joined him in the huddle.
In the early years, he relied on a short, precise passing game. In 2004, Corey Dillon arrived and gave Brady a true workhorse running back at his disposal. In ’07, trades for Randy Moss and Wes Welker resulted in the most electrifying passing game the league had ever seen, with Brady throwing 23 of his 50 touchdown passes to Moss, the greatest deep threat in NFL history. In 2010, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were drafted, Moss was traded, and the offense became tight end-centric.
Six games and six wins into the 2015 season, this edition of the Patriots offense has already offered more than a few compelling clues about its identity. It currently leads the NFL in points (213), which is just 17 off its six-game pace of ’07, when it went on to set a league record of 589 points. It’s season-low of 28 points came in the opener against Pittsburgh.
While there are standouts – Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman are Brady’s most established targets – significant help has come from various other players, including Dion Lewis, who was out of the NFL last season, and Danny Amendola, who has already eclipsed his 2014 receiving yardage total (he has 289 yards this season after tallying just 200 last year in 16 games).
This is not the most explosive, star-studded or aesthetically pleasing offense Brady has ever guided. But it may be the most versatile and well-rounded. If they can’t quite beat an opponent any way they want, they can beat an opponent any way the opponent allows. They will inevitably find a strength to overwhelm an opponent’s weakness, and such adaptability is remarkable to behold, even for someone who has presumably seen it all like Simms.
“This has been coming for a long time,’’ said Simms. “I saw the [former Patriots offensive coordinator] Charlie Weis offense, all the records they set the year they went undefeated with [Randy] Moss and [Wes] Welker, the tight end focused offense with Gronk. Now they’ve merged into so many areas, mastered so many different things, that there’s not a simple explanation for what they do. It’s a slow-down offense, it’s a hurry-up offense, it’s spread you out, it’s hammering the running game when they need to. It’s incredible and I don’t even know what else to say. They can just change into whatever they need.
“I was talking to someone the other day and they were incredulous, they said, ‘Wow, the Patriots didn’t even try to run against the Jets.’ [Brady was the leading rusher with 15 yards.] And I go, ‘Well, no kidding. Why would you want to run against the Jets? Have you seen who they line up? They’ve got monsters on the defensive line You can’t move ‘em.’ Why would you play into the other team’s strength? Why would you throw at their best player? Throw at their worst player. That ‘we’re not going to be afraid’ bluster that some coaches do? That does no good. Attack weaknesses, play to your own strengths, score points, win the game. That’s what the Patriots do. And gosh, they have so many strengths.’’
That’s not to suggest the Patriots haven’t given Brady dynamic talent with which to work. Gronkowski, who has 60 touchdown catches in 71 career games, already has a compelling argument as the greatest tight end ever. He reminds Simms of a former teammate who was a similarly ferocious force at the position before injuries stunted his career.
“He’s the modern day version of Mark Bavaro,’’ said Simms, referring to his teammate in New York from 1985-90. “Bavaro was a steamrolling, tackle-breaking guy who didn’t look that fast and yet nobody could catch him and he was always open. I’ve said it constantly, if he hadn’t gotten hurt, he was absolutely a Hall of Famer. Gronk is the same thing in this way.
“I’ll never forget, in 1985, one time he got rolling, was having one of those games where no one could cover him or tackle him. I came to the sideline and Parcells comes up to me and says, ‘Why the hell didn’t you throw it to Bavaro down the seam?’ I said, ‘Because he was covered.’ Without missing a beat, Parcells says, ‘Simms, how many times do have to tell you, when he’s covered he’s open!’’’
“And the sad thing is, I was like, ‘OK, I got ya.’ Because I knew what he was saying. ‘Throw it behind him, throw it over him, throw it low, do this.’ He’ll make the play or no one will. Mark Bavaro was one of the first to be that guy. Gronk is that guy now, the modern version, bigger and faster. It doesn’t hurt that like Bavaro he has hands the size of feet.’’
While Gronk is an exceptional weapon, it remains Brady’s duty to properly deploy him and the rest of the offense. Simms, who played against Joe Montana and has called dozens of Peyton Manning’s games, does not require any prodding to acknowledge that no one has ever played the quarterback position better than Brady.
“There’s no other words to say what Brady does,’’ he said. “The words have been said. Let’s just enjoy watching him play and what he’s doing. No matter what happens, if he plays three more years and they lose every game, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Everything was validated, first-class, it’s all over after the Super Bowl victory last year. That did it. And how he did it, in such adverse situations against that [Seahawks] defense … it’s all over.
“Of course,’’ Simms adds, “for Tom, it’s nowhere near over. He just keeps mastering a little more each year. Perfecting it. I’ve never seen anything like it.’’
Chad Finn can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeChadFinn.
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