Jake Fromm isn’t Tom Brady. Comparing Brady to anyone will always be unfair. But Fromm has qualities that might appeal to New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. And, yes, those qualities mirror many that Brady has.
The overlap was prevalent when Fromm spoke about himself during a press conference at the NFL combine last week in Indianapolis.
“I’m a guy that really likes answers,” Fromm said. “I’m an answers guy.”
He was speaking about his ability to run a pro-style offense. He’s not a mobile player, and isn’t prone to improvisation, unlike special talents like Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. If an NFL team is trying to find their version of one of those two quarterbacks, they’re probably going to fail. But teams can (and will) try, with Utah quarterback Jordan Love boasting some Mahomesian qualities. Fromm, meanwhile, doesn’t need to operate outside the system. He’s OK with running the playbook exactly how his coach drew it up. It’s not exactly thrilling. It’s mostly about efficiency and ball-control. Fromm’s desire to have “answers” is not unlike Brady.
“I have the answers to the test now,” Brady told MMQB in Feb 2017. “There was a time when quarterbacking was really hard for me because you didn’t know what to do. Now I really know what to do, I don’t want to stop now. This is when it’s really enjoyable to go out.”
The difference, of course, is that Brady has all the answers to the test. Fromm is still working hard to learn them. But his aptitude for the Georgia playbook was impressive in college. His vision for the field was strong, and he showed an ability to adjust the offense before the snap in accordance with the defense.
“I would say, I probably had as much or more as any college quarterback as far as what I could do at the line of scrimmage,” Fromm said last week. “The coaches really trusted me a lot. I could change a run to a pass, a pass to a run. This play to that play. I was really grateful for the kind of power they gave me with the offense. It was awesome. It was a great learning curve for me. It’s really going to prepare me for this next level and what I can do and how I can communicate.”
The knock on Fromm is that his arm isn’t strong enough. There are rumblings that he didn’t stretch the field enough in college. Sound familiar? After all, Brady’s biggest weakness (supposedly) was that his arm wasn’t strong enough. Fromm addressed that assessment.
“I think I have the arm strength and the ability to make every single throw I need to in the professional football league,” Fromm said. “So, I’m going to go out and not try to prove anything. I’m going to go out there and be me and throw the ball around the best I can.”
There is a contentment in his game. Against Baylor in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, he pushed the ball downfield. But that’s not exactly what he’s known for. Fromm likes to take what the defense gives him, and he seems to know what the defense is going to show before they do it. He’s not a first-round talent — he’ll probably need his teammates to elevate his level of play, particularly in his first few years as a starter. But again, how different is that from Brady, who relied heavily upon his supporting cast in his early years?
Fromm may be the type of quarterback who the Patriots want on their roster, whether Brady is in the building in 2020 or not. The Georgia product is a nice match for New England, and perhaps the Patriots, who will soon be in need of a quarterback, will find he could be a part of their future plans.
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