From the outside, everything seemed to click immediately for Tom Brady and Randy Moss.
Why wouldn’t a three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback mesh instantly with a 6-foot-4, All-Pro receiver? The numbers produced after Moss found himself in a New England Patriots jersey even backed this notion up — 98 catches, 1,493 yards and a career-high 23 touchdowns. But, this relationship was curated by much more than just reps on the field.
Brady took a different approach to acclimating Moss, and he did it by bringing him in close, according to Patriots Wire’s own, Henry McKenna.
The 42-year-old quarterback is well-known for showing his emotions on the field and flaunting his frustrations. This approach worked with Wes Welker, Julian Edelman and countless other receivers. The Patriots’ intricate playbook and Brady’s signals from the backfield have oftentimes been too much for incoming pass-catchers. So, the combination of Brady’s vocal outbursts and the complex playbook isn’t always the way to bring in a superstar playmaker.
Brady adapted and showed less emotion on the field, but he channeled that energy into locker room conversations. Moss was assigned a locker right next to Brady and that’s where the relationship was constructed.
“With his body of work that [Moss had] already accomplished, Tom would talk to Randy or go over a certain route or go over a certain depth,” former Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel said. “Those conversations took place in the locker room. Instead of doing it out in front of everybody — just to get more out of them — he would, on the other side of that, understand who he was talking to and understand the temperament of the player.”
When it came to Welker, who also joined the team that summer, Brady was capable of showing his emotion and receiving positive results.
“Some guys he would get after a little bit more, like in terms of the Welker’s of the world,” Cassel said. “I always refer to Welker as a Labrador retriever. He always wanted more and more and more.”
The most minuscule hand signal from Brady matters — so, he and Moss would discuss these details regularly. Moss also had an internal craving for knowledge, and that’s what made this combination as prolific as they were.
“I wanted them to put my locker right beside his because whenever game time came about, I wanted to know everything,” Moss said. “If not everything, at least 98, 99 percent of everything he’s going to call. So if I see a defense shifting or I see the linebackers doing something, he might change the play, and I know why and what he’s changing it to. I know why he’s changing it.”
The Patriots finished the regular season undefeated that year and lost to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. Brady threw for 4,806 passing yards and a career-high 50 touchdowns.
Ultimately, they didn’t achieve their goal of a Super Bowl win, but Brady and Moss cultivated one of the most dynamic quarterback-receiver duos that we’ve ever seen. They did it by paying attention to the small details and learning every single nuance that each other carried.
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