Bill Belichick sidestepped questions about Tom Brady’s inefficient season during a press conference on Thursday. The New England Patriots coach wouldn’t address what he has made of Brady’s completion percentage (60.1%), which is the lowest it has been in a single season during his career.
“I think, right now, we’re really focused on the Buffalo game and trying to get ready and play our best in this game,” Belichick said at Gillette Stadium. “Going back and analyzing stuff from other games and a year — it’s really not where we’re at.”
Are the Patriots making an emphasis to better that completion percentage? Or are they accepting it for what it is?
“No, we call passes to complete them,” Belichick said. “We can runs to gain yardage. We call defenses to stop our opponents. We call returns to gain yardage on the return. That’s why we call those plays. So we want to make all of them as good as we can, be as productive as we can. We try to make every play productive.”
Brady has struggled this season, with his surrounding cast putting together underwhelming performances from one week to the next — with the exception of James White and Julian Edelman. There was a brief moment when the Patriots had Antonio Brown, Josh Gordon and Edelman. The receiving corps seemed like it might be one of the NFL’s best. But Brown faced allegations of rape and sexual assault, and the Patriots cut him. Gordon dealt with an injury and off-field unreliability, so the Patriots cut him, too. New England has been desperately bringing along Mohamed Sanu, a midseason trade acquisition, and N’Keal Harry, a 2019 first-round pick.
Brady has expressed his frustration at the stagnant offense, but seems to be committed to helping along both new pass-catchers, especially considering Edelman has been fighting through injuries.
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