School is back in session, and Tom Brady is about to teach the Patriots a harsh lesson in 2021.
This is not the start of the next dynasty in New England. Mac Jones is an exciting prospect who has performed well during the preseason, but he is not the second coming of the GOAT. The Patriots are a good team, but without Tom Brady, that is all they will ever be.
The Patriots dynasty died the day Brady left New England. Letting one of the most successful players in league history walk over pennies on the dollar will haunt the Patriots for a long time to come, especially when the Buccaneers are widely regarded as the best team in the NFL.
Brady left a team in New England that went to the playoffs to join a team in Tampa that had failed to reach this mark for years but won the Super Bowl in year one. The decades of discussions about the ‘New England way’ and Tom Brady being a system quarterback crumbled into dust, and the Patriots will continue to kick themselves over this misstep for as long as the GOAT stays on the Buccaneers.
Mac Jones may look like Brady physically, but the odds that he will be the next best quarterback in the NFL are extremely long. First-round quarterbacks flame out all the time, and the odds of any player ever meeting the standard of Brady over a career is unlikely.
As the Pats go through this season and struggle, which is the extreme likelihood in their division, they will quickly realize that you don’t just replace Tom Brady. Jones may look like him physically, but that is where the comparison stops. You can spend 100 first-round picks on players that “look” like Brady did when he came out of college and miss on every one.
There is no next Tom Brady, and Patriots fans should know this better than anyone. Perhaps they will learn this for the final time when Brady wins his first game at Gillette Stadium on a team that isn’t New England.
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