Raise your glass to the winningest QB in History

[Mazz22]

That must be an active players only list.

There are plenty of others with more playoff starts than Freeney. Peyton Manning, for one. Brett Favre, for another.

Yes. It is an active list as no retired players have more than Brady. But you are right Pey Pey* has 27 and Favre has 24. Montana has 23. I would also imagine there are some kickers and punters in the 20s too.

 

[Mazz22]

 

[O_P_T]

Good article by Dan Pompei at BR about how Brady prepares and stays in shape.

In Better Shape Than Ever at Age 39: Here's How Tom Brady Does It

By Dan Pompei , NFL Columnist Jan 12, 2017

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — It is almost happy hour on Friday of the 18th week of the NFL season. After practicing earlier in the day, Patriots players are free to enjoy a weekend off. The lot outside Gillette Stadium where they park their cars is nearly empty. Snow is on the ground. A chill is in the air.

Tom Brady could be tickling his adorable kids in his Brookline mansion and listening to their sweet giggles. He could be feeling the warmth of the sun in a poolside cabana somewhere in Mexico, sipping an adult beverage from a poco grande glass with an umbrella in it. He even could be on Justin Bieber's party boat.

Instead, the great Tom Brady is on the practice field in back of Gillette Stadium, passing footballs to Julian Edelman under the watch of throwing coach Tom House.

Brady brought House to Foxborough for a mechanical evaluation and tuneup. House is observing Brady's passing from different angles. Is his arm at 30 degrees or 35 when he throws? Is his aim consistent? Is his foot placement enabling maximum hip drive? Is he effectively balanced?

At 39, Peyton Manning no longer could throw the way he used to. He missed seven starts with a foot injury and had a 67.9 passer rating—easily the worst of his career. And he knew it was time to exit the arena.

At 39, Brady led the AFC in passer rating, yards per attempt and passing yards per game. The Patriots won 11 of his 12 starts, leading many to believe he was the league's MVP. And he dreamed of playing for another decade.

"It is unbelievable to see a 39-year-old man play like he's 29," says Edelman, his teammate for eight years. "His body hasn't really changed. He may have lost some hair. Other than that, he's still the same."

Brady isn't aging as much as he is evolving, and it is not by happenstance. His objective is not to avoid becoming Manning at 39. It's to become a better Brady.

"I love the game, and I always want to improve," Brady says. "My college coach used to say, 'Better or worse: What's it gonna be?' I love to learn and to see improvement."

The season began for Brady with a four-game suspension resulting from Deflategate. While his teammates were winning three games and losing one, Brady was doing everything he could to make his body feel like he was playing football.

Wearing a helmet and pads, Brady went through the usual quarterback drills. Assistants batted him with padded arms and bags as he threw. Receivers, including former teammate Wes Welker, ran routes for him.

"We trained harder than the sport itself demands," says Alex Guerrero, Brady's body coach. "The four weeks he was off, he worked really hard. He trained so when he came back it didn't look like he had taken four weeks off."

When the suspension ended, it was almost as if it never happened. "Never mentioned the suspension," Patriots receiver Chris Hogan says. "There was no looking back for him, only looking forward."

Brady's focus was on being a leader, not a martyr. He just started throwing touchdown passes. In his first four games, Brady had a passer rating of 133.9. He credits his quick acclimation to his work with Guerrero.

Brady and Guerrero have been together for a dozen years, since Brady visited him on the recommendation of then-teammate Willie McGinest. In addition to being a team consultant who watches almost every game from the sidelines, Guerrero is a trusted member of Brady's inner circle. He is so involved in Brady's life that he often uses the pronoun "we" when talking about him. He is the godfather of Brady's son Benjamin, as well as Brady's business partner.

Their joint venture is TB12 Sports Therapy Center at Patriot Place, the open-air shopping and entertainment plaza adjacent to Gillette Stadium. With a giant picture of Brady on its exterior, TB12 sits between a spa and a new age workout studio, across from an art gallery.

Brady and about 20 of his teammates regularly take the short drive from the player lot at Gillette up to the private parking area for TB12 and ring the bell to the back door. Mostly they get body work—a form of manual massage—from Guerrero.

In the morning, before practice and after, Guerrero works Brady's right arm and the muscles and tissues around it.

"I think that arm gets rubbed and milked more than the entire cow population in the state of California," Edelman says.

Years ago, Guerrero got into trouble with the Federal Trade Commission for making claims about products that had not been properly tested, but Brady and many of his teammates swear by him. And Brady's performance is a powerful testimonial to Guerrero's methods.

"Tom takes it to heart, and it's definitely working," Edelman says. "He's so pliable and focused on the details of his body."

With guidance from his guru, Brady tries to be better through self-awareness (he meditates), rest and repair (he sleeps in special "athlete recovery sleepwear") and nutrition (he won't eat dairy, caffeine, white sugar or white flour).

For most of the year, Brady is a vegan. In the cold winter months, he adds some lean meat to his diet. A typical day's menu this time of year might include a breakfast smoothie—made with almond milk, a scoop of protein, seeds, nuts and a banana—a midmorning homemade protein bar, sliced up chicken breast on a salad with whole grains and legumes for lunch, a second smoothie as a snack and a dinner of quinoa with greens.

Unlike 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who had trouble maintaining his weight when he went vegan, Brady has had no problem maintaining lean mass. Guerrero says for the past several years, Brady has weighed 228 at the start of the season and dropped two to three pounds by the end. His body fat holds steady at about 10 percent.

Brady's workout regimen also is nontraditional for a football player. About 90 percent of his training is with resistance bands, and much of it is high-rep. In the offseason, he trains with Guerrero six days a week, sometimes twice a day. During the season, it's three times a day.

"It's unbelievable to see the consistency, how level-minded he stays and how he manages to raise the bar every year," Edelman says. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone like him—no one even close."

At the beginning of each season, the Patriots run their players through a battery of strength, speed and agility testing similar to combine drills. The purpose is to measure how the players are declining. But the damndest thing is happening with Brady. In each of the past three years, he improved his test scores in every category, according to Guerrero.

"It seems he's actually gotten stronger and faster as he's gotten older," Guerrero says.

Brady laughs it off. "I don't really correlate those numbers to being a better QB, but coaches and scouts like those things."

Brady does allow, though, that "in every way" he feels better at 39 than he did at 29.

"Really in my recovery and how my body feels each week," he says. "I basically always want to feel 100 percent for every practice and game. I know that is not always possible, but that is my goal. For the most part, I achieve that unless I sustain a big injury in the game. Then I have to work hard to be able to be ready for the game on Sunday.

"You can only work as hard as your ability to recover. I am confident in my process, and I feel there is not another 39-year old in the world that can recover faster than me. I have been blessed to learn the right methods, through my nutrition, hydration, pliability and proper rest. It's really not that hard if you do the right thing."

Last offseason, Brady made an honest evaluation of his play, as he does every offseason. Self-honesty has always come easy for him.

He thought he could make better use of downfield passing opportunities. He thought he could make more plays with his feet.

"Those are things that [could] really help our offense," Brady says. "They really help any offense.

"Hopefully we can make some big plays in the postseason, either throwing it deep or by extending plays. It takes pressure off of everybody if we can make two big plays per game. I have tried to improve those areas by focusing on how to improve them [and] working on my mechanics with my deep ball and my training methods for mobility. If you are working on the right things, the right way, I have no doubt I can continue to improve."

Brady ran a 5.28 40-yard dash at the combine 17 years ago. He never is going to be an Olympian in track and field. But he moved well enough this season to make first downs on 35.7 percent of his runs. That was the ninth-best percentage among starting quarterbacks, according to Sporting Charts.

He also has improved at moving in the pocket and extending plays. On a 3rd-and-16 against the Jets in December, Brady was flushed left by Muhammad Wilkerson. He circled backward, reset and found Edelman on a cross route for a 28-yard gain. It was the kind of play no one ever expected from Brady at 29, let alone 39.

It would not have been possible if Brady had not imagined himself a quarterback who could move more like Aaron Rodgers and less like Manning.

"He works on lower body quickness every day, doing band pulls," Edelman says. "He has someone hold the band for him to do his knee drives. He's taken that to heart to try to improve. He sees all these young guys move around with their legs, and he wants to show them he can do it too."

Brady's throws are supposed to be losing zip, but he averaged 12.2 yards per completion—his highest average in five years and the third highest of his career.

What made Brady's deep passing even more impressive is it didn't come with an offset of more turnovers. Brady's interception percentage of 0.5 was third-best all-time, and the Patriots set a team record for fewest interceptions thrown with two.

Brady's passer rating on throws of 21-plus air yards was 117, according to STATS. That was the best passer rating on such throws of his career.

As he has aged, Brady's sense of measuring risks and rewards has become keener. Maybe more than any quarterback, he understands the importance of not turning the ball over.

Usually, when a quarterback has new receivers to throw to, he becomes more prone to interceptions. But 40 percent of Brady's completions were to Hogan, Martellus Bennett and Malcolm Mitchell—new teammates in 2016.

Brady clearly has mastered the art of connecting quickly with new receivers.

"Tom takes the time to talk to guys," Hogan says. "He makes sure when they are on the field together, they will be on the same page. He's an MVP, one of the best to ever play, and he's still trying to help guys. I've been able to learn a lot from him about playing my position. A lot is being able to read coverages and, in certain instances, how to run a route versus this coverage—not looking at it through my eyes but looking at it through his eyes. Tom makes you understand what he is seeing. He explains he's going to feel good about throwing the ball if, for instance, I go inside a guy as opposed to going outside a guy."

There is another benefit to self-improvement for Brady. It is a means to improve others. "I enjoy watching my teammates grow and improve themselves personally and professionally," he says. "My motivation may be different than others. I want to be the best I can be for my teammates and coaches every day, and I never want to let them down."

It is one thing to achieve a greatness beyond what has been achieved in the past. It is another to sustain that greatness, and then to not be satisfied with it, and to reshape it and to build on top of it.

It is another thing still to do this as the oldest non-kicker in the league, after winning four Super Bowl rings and three Super Bowl MVP awards, after walking off the field victoriously more times than any quarterback in history, after making more than $196 million in football salary alone and after making one of the most gorgeous women on earth your bride.

This isn't really about arm angles, quinoa and fancy pajamas. It's about a deep, abiding hunger that very few of us could relate to.

 

[O_P_T]

Part two

When Brady stands in front of the mirror, he doesn't see the GOAT. He sees the quarterback who began his college career at Michigan with six players ahead of him on the depth chart and the one who was forced to platoon with Drew Henson as a senior. He sees the skinny kid who was passed over 198 times in the 2000 draft.

Brady was not born with football's silver spoon in his grasp. He went on a mission to find it. He stole it from Drew Bledsoe. He waged a war over it with Manning, and he refused to let it be taken by Jason Taylor, Bernard Pollard or Rex Ryan.

All of this has served him very well as he has turned his NFL run into an ultramarathon.

"We don't train with the idea he is already the starting quarterback," Guerrero says. "Every year, he's working to be the starting quarterback, and he's got to work hard to do that. He always talks about it. Every year there is going to be somebody there that is going to outwork me if I don't continue to work hard. So in his mind, he has to keep working hard in order to continue to perform at the level he has or to improve."

Jimmy Garoppolo, the team's second-round pick three years ago, is young and hungry and gifted. Many teams would be thrilled to have him as their starter. Certainly, Brady could perceive him as a threat.

In training camp after the team cleared the field, Brady sometimes challenged Garoppolo to play "the bucket game," in which the participants try to land more passes in a bucket from the same distance, usually 30 to 40 yards. And when Brady lost?

"Sometimes he wouldn't talk to me for a while," Garoppolo says with a grin.

Brady wouldn't be mad at Garoppolo, and eventually he would make that clear. He would be mad at himself.

That seems long ago now. Brady hardly is fading as he prepares for his greatest challenges of the season. After missing the first four games of the year and sitting out three practices the past month, he may be as fresh and focused as ever in January.

And now is the time of year when Brady always seems to rise above us like a hot air balloon.

As he and Guerrero reflect on the Patriots' season, Brady's impressive numbers and his age at TB12, they laugh. "This is something that is not a shock for us," Guerrero says. "It's what we've been planning to, come to fruition."

This postseason is an opportunity for Brady to do something no player has done. He can play in his seventh Super Bowl. And he can do something no quarterback has one—win his fifth.

This postseason also is opportunity for him to do something else, something that may be as just as important to him.

This postseason is an opportunity for Tom Brady to improve.

 

[BostonTim]

Part two

What a great story.
What an amazing man.

 

[chevss454]

Good find, OPT.

 

[mooseontheloose]

You know, I think sometimes we don't always take it seriously when Tom says he wants to play until 45. Not that we don't believe his desire, but it's only natural to doubt how realistic it will be physically. But if there's anyone to do it, Tom's the guy.

Just imagine how suicidal some fans will be if Brady STILL has 5-6 more years in him. You'll likely see dudes that came in after him (ie. Big Ben, Aaron Rodgers, Eli) retiring before he does.

 

[TipRoast]

You know, I think sometimes we don't always take it seriously when Tom says he wants to play until 45. Not that we don't believe his desire, but it's only natural to doubt how realistic it will be physically. But if there's anyone to do it, Tom's the guy.

Just imagine how suicidal some fans will be if Brady STILL has 5-6 more years in him. You'll likely see dudes that came in after him (ie. Big Ben, Aaron Rodgers, Eli) retiring before he does.

It will be interesting to see whether the Giants spend a top pick (say a 2nd or a 3rd) on a QB this year.

I don't think the QB of the future is currently on their roster - Josh Johnson and Ryan Nassib are the back-ups. And Johnson will be 31 next season.

 

[TipRoast]

For the statistic geeks among us.

At the end of the 2016 regular season, Tom Brady has 456 career TD passes vs 152 career INTs (regular season stats).

That's exactly a 3 to 1 TD/INT ratio.

And going into the playoffs, he has 56 career TD passes in the playoffs vs 28 career INTs in the playoffs.

That's exactly a 2 to 1 TD/INT ratio.

 

[Beaglebay]

NE fans are the luckiest in the NFL world; having TFB and BB here is just overwhelming at times.

Neither is ever satisfied, and we all are invited to enjoy and share in their success and dedication every week.

Unbelievable.

 

[Mazz22]

This article is the main reason why Brady should be the MVP this season IMO. I am posting the whole thing as it is worth the read for all of us football junkies. It is worth noting that Brady's play this year has exceeded his other two best seasons - 2007 and 2010 - the two years he won the MVP.

Here is also the link as there are videos of some of Brady's most noteworthy plays during the season, https://www.profootballfocus.com/pr...ed-the-highest-pff-qb-grade-ever-this-season/


HOW TOM BRADY HAS EARNED THE HIGHEST PFF QB GRADE EVER THIS SEASON

It’s hard to believe, but this season might be the best we’ve ever seen from New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in his 17-year, Hall of Fame-worthy career — at the age of 39 years old.

It’s impressive to think that Brady could continue to improve the nuances in his game, particularly after a career that already has him sitting along the all-time greats, but that’s just what he’s done, as we highlighted during the season. His pocket mobility is better than ever, and he’s made a conscience decision to extend plays and create later in the play like never before. Brady has even refined his deep passing in recent years, correcting a career-long criticism that he was a magician in the short and intermediate ranges but not much of a deep-ball thrower.

From throwing short or long, pressured or blitzed, within the flow of the offense or outside of it, Brady has had no discernable weakness this season, and it all added up to this: a 99.3 overall grade that represents the best regular-season grade for a quarterback during the PFF era, which dates back to the 2006 season.

Wait, Brady was better than his 2007 season that saw him light up the NFL with 50 touchdowns and only eight interceptions? He was better than 2010 when a 36-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio netted another MVP trophy?

Yes, throw for throw, he has been better this season, combining nearly flawless decision-making with precision passing to all levels of the field. Those other seasons were fantastic, obviously, but did include some Randy Moss superhuman efforts among those 50 touchdowns in 2007, and he had some interception luck that helped his cause in 2010.

Let’s have a look at how he’s done it:

Brady vs. the field

The PFF grading system takes into account all elements of the throw from the quarterback, from timing to accuracy to game situation, all while crediting the quarterback even when the receiver is unable to haul in the pass. Likewise, poor decisions and throws into coverage that should be intercepted are downgraded harshly whether the defender comes up with the turnover or not, and all incompletions consider whether it was the quarterback’s inaccuracy or something the receiver or defender did to render the pass incomplete.

That’s the reason Brady graded higher than Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons this season despite Brady finishing second to Ryan in both passer rating (112.2) and yards per attempt (8.2). Ryan had more explosive plays from his receivers on “easier” — or more expected — passes, while also having some interception luck, as he had far more turnover-worthy plays than his seven interceptions would suggest. Brady did not receive as much help from his playmakers and his impressive interception total of two was a legitimate indication of how well he took care of the ball this season.

Brady dominated the grading in every major situation this season. In PFF’s play-by-play grading, he sits atop the list when pressured, against no pressure, against the blitz, against no blitz, on third down, and on intermediate (10-19 yard) throws where he is dominating the field and has a 152.2 passer rating (a perfect passer rating is 158.3).

QB Trait 2016

Another way of measuring quarterback performance is the #BigTimeThrow — also the namesake of PFF’s Quarterback Podcast, the Big Time Throwcast — consisting of the highest-graded throws in the PFF system. These throws earn the higher grade due to great timing and accuracy, and they’re usually thrown downfield or into a tighter window. Brady has the highest percentage of big-time throws (BTTs) this season by a wide margin, and he actually ranks third in total big-time throws despite missing four games to start the season due to his suspension.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the turnover-worthy throw — a play so hideous that no podcast would ever dare name itself after it — which are the lowest-graded plays in the PFF system, and per the name, passes that should become turnovers due to a poor decision or dangerous throw into coverage. Brady is also miles ahead of the field here, as he has only four turnover-worthy throws on the season — including his two interceptions — and he had the lowest percentage of turnover-worthy throws in the PFF era at 0.81 percent.

The combination of big-time throws and turnover-worthy throws is usually a great indicator of a quarterback’s success, as it combines big-play opportunities with ball security, and not only does Brady lead in both areas, his ratio of 8.25 BTTs to TWTs is also a PFF-era record.

Key areas of improvement

If there’s one thing Brady has shown, it’s his ability to succeed in numerous environments throughout his career. Yes, he’s been in the same offensive system his entire career, but the elements around him have been ever-changing. During his tenure as Patriots starter, the offense has had many iterations, whether it was a two-back look, a spread look that revolutionized the NFL, or a two tight-end set that created mismatches like few offenses in NFL history, all while incorporating no-huddle and uptempo elements that gave Brady full control over the game like few quarterbacks in history.

Brady has now managed to add versatility to his skill set, something a 25-year old quarterback struggles to do, but Brady has done so while approaching the age of 40. We covered it in more depth earlier in the year, but he began focusing on extending plays and creating more offense late in the down in 2014, and we saw the fruits of that labor this year as Brady’s 112.0 passer rating on plays lasting at least 2.6 seconds ranked second in the league.

As recently as 2013, Brady ranked 30th in this area, and the number has grown steadily ever since. The newfound vigor to extend plays led to Brady’s average time to throw in the pocket landing on its highest mark since the 2011 season as he averaged 2.49 seconds per dropback, eighth-lowest in the league. It’s a category in which Brady usually ranks among the top three, and he still makes his fair share of quick-hitting throws, but the ability to extend plays has allowed him to find extra big plays throughout the season while also allowing him to limit those turnover-worthy throws by getting rid of the ball and not forcing the issue when receivers are covered.

This can be seen in his excellence on third down, as he ranks No. 1 in the league in QB rating after posting an 11-to-1 TD-to-INT ratio:

Final word

Just as important as the final PFF grade is the construction of the grade and figuring out how number comes to be. Some quarterbacks have a high percentage of positively-graded throws but also a high percentage of negatively-graded throws, while others play a more conservative brand of football that involves safer throws and fewer extremes in the grading scale.

Brady has found the Holy Grail this season, showing capable of making pinpoint downfield throws while also taking care of the football and posting the lowest percentage of negatively-graded throws in the NFL. A great career became even greater here in 2016, all at the age of 39 when many former quarterbacks are generally on the decline or out of the league entirely. Brady added yet another chapter to his Hall of Fame career, and if he can put the cherry on top with another run through the postseason, it’ll be another feather in the cap for his case as the greatest signal-caller of all-time.

At the very least, he’ll have his 99.3 overall grade — the best we’ve seen at PFF in our 11 seasons.

 

[mooseontheloose]

The funny thing is, no one outside of NE really notices or cares. To them, TB had another fine year on par with the other MVP candidates and that's it. He's expected to dominate so when he does it's just considered normal, even though what he's doing is historic.

 

[O_P_T]

This is a pretty cool clip of Michael Irvin praising TFB+

Can't embed since it's NFL Network.

 

[Roberto71]

This is a pretty cool clip of Michael Irvin praising TFB+

Can't embed since it's NFL Network.

And Marshall Faulk still at it......still won't concede. He was at it pre-game, picking the Steelers to win. He's done it for so long now he doesn't know any different.

 

[DeweyTime]

And Marshall Faulk still at it......still won't concede. He was at it pre-game, picking the Steelers to win. He's done it for so long now he doesn't know any different.

Marshall Faulk and ye ol' "Joe went to fewer but one them all" argument.

 

[TipRoast]

And Marshall Faulk still at it......still won't concede. He was at it pre-game, picking the Steelers to win. He's done it for so long now he doesn't know any different.

I'm pretty tired of hearing the "Montana never lost a Super Bowl" argument.

Think of the playoffs as the Olympics.

A Super Bowl win is a gold medal.
A Super Bowl loss is a silver medal.
A conference championship loss is a bronze medal.

Montana: 4 golds, 0 silvers, 3 bronzes
Brady: 4 golds, 2 silvers, 4 bronzes

And Brady will pick up either a gold or silver this year.

It's pretty clear which QB has done more in the post-season.

 

[Mazz22]

And Marshall Faulk still at it......still won't concede. He was at it pre-game, picking the Steelers to win. He's done it for so long now he doesn't know any different.

Irving had the best comment. He said this season no one even mentioned Joe as the GOAT. It was Brady. Brady has supplanted him. And really that is the true litmus test. It does not matter if Faulk or a few other talking heads want to keep Joe ahead of him out of spite, the majority of the football world already sees Brady as the GOAT.

I have said this for some time now but every single QB from here on out will be judged by Brady. His standard for winning is unmatched in every area - regular season, post-season, conference champ game, SB appearances. They are ALL chasing him that is what makes him the GOAT.

 

[MontanaBrady]

 

[Mazz22]

I'm pretty tired of hearing the "Montana never lost a Super Bowl" argument.

It's all the haters have left.

 

[TipRoast]

Just following up with some analysis of the two careers of Montana and Brady.

Since losing a Super Bowl is considered (by some) to be a "blemish" on a QBs career, let's consider other kinds of blemishes. I'll call them "ugly blemishes" - they're more significant than a Super Bowl blemish, because they indicate failure at a lower level of competition.

• Not even making the playoffs is an ugly blemish. The ugliest, I think.
• Making the playoffs but going one-and-done is an ugly blemish. Major ugly.
• Winning a playoff game but not making the conference championship? Another ugly blemish.

Montana began his career in 1979, but didn't become the full-time starter until 1981 (although he did start 7 games in 1980). And he started half the games in 1986, including the playoff game that year. He also only played one game in 1991-1992. So let's consider his career as starter to be the years 1981-1990, and 1993-1994, a total of 12 years.

During those years, his team did not make the playoffs 1 times, had 3 one-and-dones, and had another year where they won a game but didn't make the conference championship. A total of 5 ugly blemishes.

Brady began his career in 2000, but didn't become the full-time starter until 2001. Additionally, he lost the 2008 season due to injury. So to date, his career consists of 15 years as a starter.

During those years, his team did not make the playoffs 1 time, had 2 one-and-dones, and had one year where they won a game but didn't make the conference championship. A total of 4 ugly blemishes.

So not only does Brady have more post-season success than Montana, he also has fewer ugly blemishes on his record over a longer career.



*** One more thing - I'm not trying to be critical of Joe Montana; he had a remarkable career. It is amazing to me that for all of Brady's accomplishments, he barely manages to eclipse what Montana did.