Here’s why Tom Brady thinks ‘quarterbacking has gone backwards a little bit in the NFL’

During his illustrious and assured Hall of Fame career, Tom Brady became known not only for his strong arm or his pinpoint accuracy or his determination under pressure or his ability to get the ball out quickly, but also for his complete control of the entire game. attack. Brady could get to the line of scrimmage, immediately identify what defense the opponent was on, get his team into the right play, and then deliver the ball at the right time, on target, and to the right receiver, with remarkable consistency.

And it’s in that last area where he thinks the quarterback’s current play is getting worse.

“I think the quarterback took a little step back in the NFL” said Brady, via Yahoo! sports. “I don’t think it’s improved. I don’t think the teaching has improved. I think maybe the physical fundamentals could be improved a little bit because there’s better information out there for defenders to study mechanics. But I don’t think defenders really are field generals now like they used to be.

“It’s a broad statement, certainly. But I had complete control. I had all the tools I needed. I was trained that way. I was developed to have the tools I needed to go into the field, so that whenever something came up, I I had the right play, the right formation, the right sound, the right check on the line – to finally take control of the 11 players on offense and lead us to a good, positive play.”

As for why he thinks this is happening, Brady gave a pretty specific answer: Some coaches want control for themselves.

“I think there is now this element of attempted lateral control among coaches, where they want to have control,” he said. “And they are not teaching and developing players the right tools so they can go out on the field and make their own decisions that are best for the team. When I looked at Peyton Manning, he was a guy I looked at because he had ultimate control. And I think the game has regressed a little bit in that way, based on what happened in high school football. college football and so the NFL is getting a much less developed quarterback right now.”

Clearly, there are still plenty of quarterbacks who have great control over their offenses.

Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott in particular are known for their pre-snap orchestration, with Rodgers often seemingly calling his own plays at the line and Prescott routinely checking the Cowboys in and out of different looks in response to what the defense shows him. . (The tension between how Rodgers likes to play and how Matt LaFleur wanted to call plays was a consistent thread throughout the partnership with Green Bay.) Matthew Stafford also falls into this category. There are also players – such as Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and others – who have great control over their offenses in terms of style of play and use of different formations and concepts, as well as line of attack. – scrimmage checks. And there are even more – Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, etc. – whose offenses are built almost entirely around their specific skill sets, so that what they do well can be amplified and what they don’t can be minimized.

And most other quarterbacks still have at least some degree of autonomy to hear the right play at the line. Maybe not as much as Brady or Manning did, but some. Still, there are systems where the coach wants the quarterback to simply run the play that is called. Many of the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay play-callers prefer this route, for example, even if some (i.e. LaFleur: see above) are more flexible about it than others.

Will the league ever go back to playing like Brady and Manning did, all the time? Perhaps. Probably not. But it also may not be necessary. Offenses and plays have evolved to the point that many plays now have multiple options built in from the jump and/or allow the quarterback to use what the defense does after the snap against him and make the correct decision from there. And frankly, many quarterbacks now have the kind of athletic talent that Brady never had and therefore don’t have as strong a need to win in every part of the pre-snap phase of the game as he did. He mastered this, at least in part, because it was the best way to succeed. The easiest paths to success for other quarterbacks may look different.

Obviously, there is still a need for any quarterback, no matter his style of play, to hear plays that seem dead on arrival based on offensive and defensive alignments or personnel. And there are still a lot of players capable of doing much more than that, whether Brady thinks so or not.