Ernie Adams was there — perhaps even in the draft room — when the New England Patriots drafted quarterback Tom Brady. Adams, former football research director for the Patriots, watched Brady’s career evolve in New England from start to finish. So he has a unique perspective on the quarterback’s two decades with the Patriots.
During an interview on the “Past Pats” podcast, Adams reflected upon Brady’s first two seasons with New England when he rose from fourth-stringer to starter and supplanted Drew Bledsoe.
“I don’t know if that it was one specific play but as we started playing in 2001, Tom just got better every week,” Adams said. “The team responded well. He was doing well. I think it was more of a process than one play. Being realistic about it we knew after the 2001 season that Tom was going to be our quarterback. We weren’t going to have Drew here as our backup. That realistically was not going to happen.”
Adams shared a more specific example.
“Tom would jump on a receiver for cutting his route off at nine yards instead of 12 yards because it’s doing all the little things, it’s all the details every day. You have to do it and get it right,” Adams said. “Because when you get down to those critical situations in the championship game where you got the whole season riding on one play, it’s the ability to execute the fundamentals just right that makes the difference.”
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