When Tom Brady made his departure from the Patriots official after a couple of decades in Foxborough, the discussion began to determine who had the dominant role in New England’s successes, the 43-year-old quarterback or coach Bill Belichick. A little less than a year after the divorce, Michigan’s product has tipped the balance in its favor.
Brady and the Buccaneers
The first point, and perhaps the most important, is that for the tenth time in his career, Brady has made it to the Super Bowl. The company grows larger considering that Tampa Bay is in its first playoff appearance since 2007 and will play the second Super Bowl in its history.
On a personal level, Brady had one of his best seasons statistically. Ended with 4,633 yards (fifth most of his career), 40 touchdowns (second time that it exceeds this barrier), 65.9 percent complete (fourth best record as a professional) and rating of 102.2 (sixth best). By comparison, during 2019, his senior year at Gillette Stadium, he amassed 4,057 yards, 24 touchdowns, 60.8 percent completions and an 88 rating.
Should he land the second Vince Lombardi for the Florida organization, Brady would become barely the second quarterback in history in winning the title with two different organizations.
Patriots after Brady
For Robert Kraft’s team, the beginning of the era without Tom Brady was tough. After qualifying for 11 consecutive postseason runs and having 20 winning seasons, the Patriots saw these streaks ended at the end of 2020 with a 7-9 balance, what made them the third team in the AFC East.
Things didn’t work out well on offense without ‘TB12’. With Cam Newton at the controls they only got 2,890 passing yards (third worst attack of the season) and 12 touchdown passes (tied with the Giants in the NFL basement). Faced with deficiencies by air, evident since 2019 with a limited distribution of receivers, the Patriots found a new strength, the running game, a department in which they were one of the forces of the league, finishing as 2,345 yards (the fourth best team) .
The problems not only remained in the attack; defensively they went on to be the best defense in the championship in 2019 (average of 275.8 total yards per game) to seventh in 2020 (353.7 yards per game). What is truly alarming about the case is that on the ground they tolerated 2,103 yards (131.43 per commitment), a far cry from the 1,528 (95.5) they accepted a year ago.
However, For New England, the outlook in 2021 is not as dark as one might diagnose. In free agency they will be the fourth team with the most money in the salary cap and, in addition, they will recover the eight elements who decided not to play in 2020 due to COVID. Of the players who chose to stay out, at least three are clear starters (Dont’a Hightower, Patrick Chung and Marcus Cannon).
