{"id":75729,"date":"2019-11-05T06:47:59","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T11:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=75729"},"modified":"2021-12-29T16:26:46","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T21:26:46","slug":"new-england-patriots-bye-week-report-quarterback-tom-brady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/11\/05\/new-england-patriots-bye-week-report-quarterback-tom-brady\/","title":{"rendered":"New England Patriots Bye Week Report: Quarterback Tom Brady"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New England Patriots<\/a> enter their bye week in a pretty comfortable position. While their 37-20 loss left a bad taste in the collective mouths of Patriots Nation, the fact of the matter is this team is still 8-1 and controls their own destiny for home field advantage. During the bye week, Last Word at Pro Football will break down the roster, position by position, starting with quarterback Tom Brady<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Quarterback Tom Brady: New England Patriots Bye Week Report<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Good<\/h3>\n

Even at the advanced age of 42 years old, Tom Brady remains one of the best quarterbacks in the league. While he\u2019s not playing quite as well as he did from 2014 to 2017, the six-time Super Bowl champion is still a top-10 quarterback by just about every measure. Through eight weeks of action, Brady is 9th<\/sup> in Football Outsiders DYAR, 11th<\/sup> in DVOA, and 10th<\/sup> in ESPN\u2019s QBR metric while leading the league in passing attempts.<\/p>\n

Brady\u2019s managed to do all this despite playing with a constantly changing cast of passing weapons. Brady entered the season with Julian Edelman<\/a>, Josh Gordon<\/a>, Demaryius Thomas<\/a>, <\/strong>and Antonio Brown<\/a><\/strong> as his top four receivers. That\u2019s obviously an amazing grouping on paper, but three of the four are no longer in New England. Edelman is still great, Phillip Dorsett<\/a><\/strong> is reliable as ever, but it\u2019s not the best cast Brady\u2019s ever worked with. In the past, he\u2019d overcome said circumstances and remain a top-three quarterback. However, he\u2019s at the point in his career where he needs a little more help than he used to. Additionally, the offensive line hasn\u2019t done well with Isaiah Wynn<\/a><\/strong> on the injured reserve. Hopefully, the return of N\u2019Keal Harry <\/strong><\/a>and Wynn along with the emergence of Mohamed Sanu<\/a><\/strong> can be enough to bring Brady back to the NFL elite.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best thing about Brady\u2019s season is that he can still sling it. Peyton Manning<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s statistical decline came out of nowhere, but he never fully regained his arm strength following his 2011 neck surgery. As great as he was, it was easy to predict a decline with his limited throwing ability. Brady, meanwhile, shows no signs of slowing down. The three-time MVP can still make any throw and currently ranks sixth in air yards.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ryan_Spags\/status\/1189157585133457408?s=20<\/p>\n

The Bad<\/h3>\n

Tom Brady is still a great quarterback, but there is some room for improvement. Brady came out of the gate hot, completing 68% of his passes for 911 yards, seven touchdowns, and no interceptions through the first three games of the season. However, since Week 4, Brady has completed just 63.45% of his passes for 1,625 yards, seven touchdowns, and five interceptions. This includes one of the worst games of his career against the Buffalo Bills when he finished with just 150 passing yards, no touchdowns, and one interception.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to nitpick the greatest quarterback of all-time, but Brady is also throwing the ball away at an alarming rate. As of last week, Brady and Aaron Rodgers<\/a><\/strong> were tied for the league lead in throwaways. Some of this is due to Brady not trusting his protection and playing with a lead. The Patriots typically play from ahead, meaning that it\u2019s smarter for Brady to just throw the ball away and trust his defense instead of trying to force something into tight coverage. Still, Brady should look to decrease his amount of throwaways in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n

Overall, Tom Brady is in the midst of what\u2019s easily the best season ever by a 42-year old quarterback. This isn\u2019t his best season on a throw-for-throw basis, but he hasn\u2019t shown any sign of physical decline. With Harry and Wynn poised to return, Brady could go on a second-half tear and play like a top-five quarterback for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Overall Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

Main photo:
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>