Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Is Tom Brady ever going to slow down?
By Rob Leeds
Tom Brady has begun training camp with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and looks as ready as ever to light the NFL on fire in 2020.
As anyone who has ever come close to a professional athlete will tell you, whispers follow in their wake. People will debate over the identity of the player “no that isn’t him” or “no way, that is-“, talk about how big they are, or many other conversations. It is easy to have that effect on fans, but Tom Brady also has that effect on his teammates.
Some analysts and the talking heads are very quick to write Tom Brady off due to his age or by stat watching, but no current players in the NFL are ready to do the same. Despite just turning 43, Brady’s new teammates are already in awe of their new quarterback.
As recent running back signing LeSean McCoy is starting to grow accustomed to his new team, he has already made it known that he has heard players asking one another how long Brady can continue playing.
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If McCoy is already hearing this awe coming from the players and it has only been a day, then clearly there is a widespread belief that Brady will continue to defy conventional logic.
Fortunately for the Buccaneers, the awe is wholly justified. Brady has shown minor levels of regression throughout his career, and nothing from last season points to the fact that Brady is ill-prepared to captain the Buccaneer offense.
Last season, Brady was able to post at least 4,000 passing yards for the 11th time in his career. It is also worth mentioning that Brady was even playing with one of the worst wide receiver groups of his career and had very few consistent options.
Because Tom Brady was able to stay healthy with a high volume of throws and succeed with the worst receiver corps in the NFL, there is no reason to suspect that Brady’s numbers won’t improve with the best receiver duo in football.
How much longer can Brady actually keep this going? The question is valid, and people have been predicting a decline for almost ten years now. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, the smart money is on an improvement this year, rather than a step back.