This Tom Brady factoid brings his career full circle
BOSTON -- Tom Brady went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, and after hitting some initial bumps in the road, they lit the world on fire and won a Super Bowl in their first year together. Now just two years later, things have gone off the rails.
After barely beating the Falcons at home in Week 5, the Bucs lost to the 1-4 Steelers in Week 6. Looking to rebound in Week 7, Brady and the Bucs instead couldn't really compete in Carolina against the 1-5 Panthers, who had just fired their head coach traded away their two best offensive players.
The Panthers entered Week 7 as one of the worst teams in the NFL. They left Week 7 with a 21-3 victory over Brady and the Bucs.
As a result, the Buccaneers are now 3-4 on the season.
Having a sub-.500 record this late in the season is something Brady is simply not at all familiar with in his 23-year career. In fact, the folks at NFL Research pumped out this quality factoid that really helps contextualize the current spot for Brady: "Tom Brady has a losing record through his first 7 games of a season for the first time since 2002 — his first full season as an NFL starting QB and the only healthy season of his career in which he did not make the playoffs."
With his Week 7 loss to the Panthers, Tom Brady has a losing record through his first 7 games of a season for the first time since 2002 — his first full season as an NFL starting QB and the only healthy season of his career in which he did not make the playoffs.
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) October 23, 2022
If the 2022 season ends up being the final act for the 45-year-old quarterback, that's some striking symmetry.
Brady -- quite famously -- became the Patriots' starter in 2001, going 11-3 in the regular season before winning three playoff games en route to the first Super Bowl title in franchise history.
But 2002 was the first year that Brady entered an NFL training camp as the starting QB. Drew Bledsoe had been traded away, and the defending champs left no doubt that Brady was their guy.
After a 3-0 start to the season, it appeared the good times would continue to roll. But then they lost four straight games -- at the Chargers, at the Dolphins, and home vs. the Packers and Broncos. After throwing nine touchdowns and two interceptions with a 107.9 rating through the first three weeks, Brady threw six touchdowns and seven interceptions with a 69.1 rating during the four-game losing streak. (Incredibly, that stretch stands as the only time Brady has ever lost three consecutive games in his career. That's at risk with Thursday night's game vs. the Ravens on tap.)
The 2002 Patriots wouldn't drop below .500 again, but December losses at Tennessee and at home vs. the Jets sunk their playoff chances, before a roller coaster of emotions in Week 17. The Patriots came back to beat the Dolphins in overtime at home, only to see the Jets blow out the Packers in the late afternoon to officially eliminate the Patriots from the playoff field.
How this year ends up for Brady and the Bucs is anyone's guess. Entering the year, they were generally considered the team to have the second-best chances of winning the Super Bowl. And even after a 2-2 start, they looked like a shoo-in for the playoffs, almost certainly as NFC South champs. They're still technically in first place, but they're on shaky ground. And if they can't beat Pittsburgh or Carolina, then no team on the remainder of their schedule can be considered an automatic win.
"We just have not played well. If you don't execute your job well, it doesn't matter who's on the other side," Brady said after Sunday's loss. "It still comes down to the fundamentals of the sport, throwing and catching, blocking, tackling, all the fundamentals."
Brady hasn't been playing bad, per se. He ranks sixth in the NFL in passing yards and ninth in passer rating, while completing a tick under 67 percent of his passes. His touchdowns are down (8), but he's thrown just one interception. (Drops like the one Mike Evans had on Sunday aren't helping.) So he hasn't really hurt the Bucs, but he's not helping the way that the greatest of all time usually does.
It's not apples-to-apples to 2002, when he had 15 touchdowns but nine interceptions through seven weeks. But the fact that he's currently under .500 in late October for the first time since his first season as starter in what may be his final season in the NFL? Sure seems like things have come full circle.