Is Tom Brady done at age 43? Panthers’ game at Tampa Bay will tell us the answer
Like a rich, handsome and unwelcome relative who shows up every few years at the family Christmas dinner driving a new Porsche, Tom Brady has flitted in and out of the Carolina Panthers’ lives for the past 20 years.
He will do so again Sunday — but for the first time in a Tampa Bay uniform.
And here’s the thing: Brady isn’t close to done.
I don’t buy the opinion of anyone who theorizes the quarterback is over the hill following last week’s desultory performance in his first game for the Buccaneers. The bounce-back game for Brady is coming soon. The Panthers are hoping they aren’t the victim — although my guess is they will be.
People always make too much of Week 1 in the NFL. Brady hasn’t forgotten how to throw. It’s obvious, though, that he’s not quite as comfortable with Tampa Bay’s offensive system yet as he was with New England’s.
Said Panthers linebacker Tahir Whitehead of Brady: “I think you can tell he’s still working out some kinks … We definitely have to make sure we make it as hard as possible and not allow him to just read our mail … At some point (Brady will) get comfortable but, sh--, not this week, you know? Maybe next.”
At age 43, Brady’s longevity is extraordinary.
One easy way to measure that longevity is to list the quarterbacks that Tom Terrific has faced in his six previous meetings with the Panthers.
It started with Chris Weinke — yes, Chris Weinke — on Jan. 6, 2002, in Charlotte, in a game New England won, 38-6. That one was played in front of 21,070 fans, the smallest crowd in Carolina history until the Panthers played their 2020 season opener in an empty stadium last week due to COVID-19.
Weinke threw two pick-sixes during that 2001 game to finish off a 1-15 season for the Panthers. He has been out of the NFL for 13 years.
After that came Jake Delhomme against Brady twice — once in the thrilling Super Bowl that helped cement the Brady legend — followed by Matt Moore in 2009, followed by Cam Newton twice.
In reality, although most people only remember the 32-29 Super Bowl loss Brady inflicted on the Panthers on Feb. 1, 2004, Carolina has played well against Brady over the years except in that biggest game of all.
In regular-season games, Carolina holds a 3-2 edge over Brady-led New England teams. Newton was 2-0 against Brady, which undoubtedly factored into Bill Belichick’s decision to sign him to replace Brady as the Patriots’ quarterback this offseason.
Tom Brady’s ‘bad decision’
Brady’s parting with Belichick and the Patriots and subsequent signing by the Bucs was a huge offseason story. But his debut against New Orleans last Sunday wasn’t up to his standards. He threw a pick-six for the third straight game when you include last year’s AFC playoffs; it was as if Brady was somehow channeling Jameis Winston.
“Bad decision,” growled Tampa coach Bruce Arians of Brady’s pick-six throw.
Brady also got picked off a second time vs. the Saints. Arians at first blamed Brady for that one, too, before changing his mind after watching film and saying wide receiver Mike Evans should have run a different route.
Arians’ public criticism of Brady was in turn criticized by hall of fame quarterback Brett Favre, who opined that the two’s relationship doesn’t need that sort of friction right away.
“The last person you want to call out after the first game of the year is Tom Brady,” Favre said on his Sirius XM radio show.
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Arians and Brady will be fine. Brady survived Belichick’s cold-hearted coaching for 20 years, after all. And part of it was simply the scheduling. Playing the rebuilding Panthers at home is a lot different than playing a playoff-bound New Orleans team on the road.
The Panthers had zero sacks and got hardly any pressure against Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr in their season-opening 34-30 loss. With Brady, they will need to get in his face or pay the consequences.
Said Arians: “If you don’t get pressure on him, it’s a long day, that’s for sure.”
Does Brady still have it?
Brady has been around the NFL so long that everyone has a story about him, or at least about watching him.
Jeremy Chinn, the Panthers’ rookie safety who played every defensive snap in Carolina’s season opener, was two years old when Brady made his NFL debut in 2000. Said Chinn: “I grew up watching Tom Brady — rooting against Tom Brady. I grew up a Colts fan in Indianapolis. ... So the kid in me is really excited.”
“I haven’t had any interaction with him,” Carolina quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said of Brady. “But I have a mutual friend in (Indianapolis quarterback) Jacoby Brissett. When Jacoby was in New England (as Brady’s backup), I used to ask him every day, ‘Hey, what’s Tom doing? What’s Tom eating? How’s he approaching this day?’”
Brady won six Super Bowl championships in New England and played in nine Super Bowls altogether. It’s extraordinary, really — we may never see another QB win six NFL championships.
Phil Snow, the Panthers’ defensive coordinator, has experience with Brady from a stint in the league he had in the late 2000s, when he was the linebackers coach for the Detroit Lions. During a media call Thursday, I asked Snow for his best Tom Brady story.
“When I was with the Lions, we played in Foxborough and we were up (21-13 in the fourth quarter),” Snow responded. “And they got the ball twice in the (final quarter), never had a play over 10 yards and they ended up beating us. You know, he just has the ability to move the chains and always has.”
For a game that occurred 14 years ago, Snow’s memory was nearly spot-on. The Patriots had two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter to win that game 28-21 — on the final one, there was indeed no play over 10 yards. On the first, there was a 16-yarder.
But the larger point remains: Brady isn’t much of a runner, he was famously a sixth-round draft pick in 2000 and yet he has found a way to win so many times that he may well be the best QB of all time.
Now is Brady as good as he ever was? No way.
“I’m sure he doesn’t move quite as well as he did back then,” Snow said. “Heck, he’s 43-years old now. But he’s as smart as he’s ever been. And he can still throw the ball when he needs to.”
I asked Snow, finally, if Brady has still “got it.”
“You know, I’ll tell you afterwards,” Snow said, chuckling, “whether he’s got it or not.”
One day he won’t anymore. But Sunday isn’t going to be that day.
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Is Tom Brady done at age 43? Panthers’ game at Tampa Bay will tell us the answer."
