Is Tom Brady done? Chiefs players laugh at the thought, still call him the GOAT
Patrick Mahomes had been preparing to leave Arrowhead Stadium after the most painful loss of his career, an overtime defeat one game shy of the Super Bowl, when someone stopped him.
Tom Brady.
Then the New England Patriots quarterback, Brady took a brief break from celebrating an AFC championship to track down a 23-year-old who had taken the league by storm.
“He just talked about how he respected how I did everything the right way,” Mahomes said. “It’s just cool to have a guy of that stature who’s won championships — it seems like year in and year out — that has as much respect for your game as you have for his.”
The gesture seemed to have more meaning than a traditional postgame handshake. It certainly required more effort. Was Brady, the winner of six Super Bowls, essentially anointing Mahomes his successor?
Not yet, as it turns out.
OK, so a year later, in his third try, Mahomes finally beat Brady head-to-head — and then capped the season with his own Lombardi Trophy. Surely now Brady would be ready to pass the proverbial torch to Mahomes?
Well, no, still not yet.
It’s been two years since that unexpected postgame meeting in the interior of Arrowhead Stadium, and Brady has since taken his talents to Tampa Bay at 43 years old, but he’s still the quarterback for a likely playoff team. Still, at least according to advanced metrics, one of the best at his position.
And still not done yet.
“He’s unbelievable,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “He’s a great player, a Hall of Fame player. We’re lucky enough to be in this era where we can watch him.
“He’s old, and it’s hard to tell that he’s old.”
The numbers illustrate a typical Tom Brady season. His arm is 43 years old and has more than 10,000 NFL passes on its life history, but it’s the most utilized weapon in football this year. Brady leads the league in completions and attempts. His completion percentage, 64.7%, is higher than his career average. His 268.6 passing yards per game is, too.
He has thrown 25 touchdowns, already one more than last season, putting him on pace for 36 by year’s end. If he reaches that number, it would tie the third most in his career.
“I see the greatest quarterback of all time,” Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu said of his thought process when watching the film on Brady in preparation to play the Buccaneers on Sunday. “Obviously we have Patrick, but I think you can’t take anything away from Tom Brady. He’s still very smart. He’s still trying to throw the ball down the field. Then he has all the weapons that any quarterback can ask for. So we’ll have our hands full with him.”
According to Football Outsiders, Brady is fifth in the NFL in defense-adjusted yards above replacement, a statistic used to measure performance compared to replacement level. (Mahomes is first ... by a lot.)
But there is one thing that doesn’t stack up with a younger Tom Brady. One area is either a statistical outlier for the short term or at long last a demonstration of his age.
The deep pass.
As Mathieu pointed out, Brady still isn’t shy about throwing deep. But the success rate? Well, it’s zero. Literally. In the past four games, Brady has thrown 19 passes that have traveled at least 20 yards in the air, per NextGen Stats. He’s completed none to his own receivers, though the opposing team has caught three.
In Monday night’s loss to the Rams, Brady threw a pair of ugly interceptions on deep passes. He was 0-for-6 on such attempts in the game.
And that’s fueled talk that has become an annual tradition for the past few seasons. Is Brady finally done? Maybe, you know, it’s time to step aside and let Mahomes or Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers assume his place.
But that conversation is nowhere near the Chiefs practice facility. On Wednesday, Mathieu still referred to Brady as the greatest quarterback of all time. Tyreek Hill used the same lingo, albeit the acronym — GOAT — when asked about Brady. “I want to call him Mr. Tom for some reason,” he joked, a sign of respect for the accomplishments.
It seems the Chiefs are aware they have been down this road before. Two years ago, some wondered if a 41-year-old Brady still had enough. He enjoyed a trophy presentation on the Arrowhead Stadium field that day.
“Whatever anybody says,” Reid said. “He’s playing pretty good football.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Is Tom Brady done? Chiefs players laugh at the thought, still call him the GOAT."