In any other season, if the league’s top-ranked passing defense could choose a team to play the week after having the ball run down its throat 46 times for over 200 yards, it might have chosen the league’s most pass-happy team led by a 44-year-old quarterback.
But in this season, that pass-happy team is the reigning Super Bowl champion, and that 44-year-old is the greatest that ever was — in the midst of one his most productive seasons ever. If the New England Patriots represent one extreme end of the offensive spectrum, their former quarterback and Buffalo Bills tormenter Tom Brady represents the other.
His accolades are endless and don’t need repeating, but to name a few: seven-time Super Bowl champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, three-time league MVP. He’s the NFL’s all-time leader in passing touchdowns and yards, having thrown for over 4,000 yards 12 times, including one 5,000-yard season. He’s been a lock for the Hall of Fame for over a decade now. And, yet, Brady is somehow having a statistical season better than maybe all but one in his entire 22-year career.
The betting favorite for MVP with +140 odds on Tipico Sportsbook, Brady is passing for 314.3 yards per game, the second most in his career behind that 5,000-yard season in 2011, when he averaged 327.2. He finished that year with 5,235 yards, a number he’s actually on pace to eclipse this year thanks to the new 17-game schedule. If this season was only 16 games, he’d still be on pace for 5,029 yards.
Additionally, Brady has 34 touchdowns this season, just six short of what he did last year for the Bucs. He’s on pace for about 48 touchdowns, which would be the second-most of his career behind the 50 he threw in that magical 2007 run where he connected with Randy Moss 23 times and the Pats finished the regular season undefeated. The only other time Brady threw for at least 40 touchdowns was last season.
Brady is completing 68.3% of his passes this year, which also falls second to that 2007 season, probably the year most people recognize as the greatest of his career. But as we all know, that year didn’t end with a Super Bowl. Nor did the 2011 season. The New York Giants came out on top both times.
At the rate it’s going, if Brady ends the 2021 season without a Super Bowl title, it’ll still likely fall somewhere between those two years as one of his best. The one thing holding it back from topping the list is how much he’s turning the ball over. His 10 interceptions are just two short of his total from last season and are already more than he threw in eight other seasons of at least 12 games played. He’s on pace for 14 picks in 17 games, which would tie his career high and be the most he’s thrown since 2005.
But those interceptions have hardly kept his Bucs from dominating this season. Their 9-3 record is tied with the Green Bay Packers for second-best in the entire NFL and their +107 point differential is fourth in the NFL, second in the NFC. If he finds a way to keep it up and actually caps this year with an eighth title, who knows? This year may go down as his best ever.
Brady’s tour of greatness continues Sunday at home against the Bills. For his career, Brady is 32-3 against them, the most wins by a quarterback against a single opponent in NFL history. He has 8,669 yards and 70 touchdowns to just 25 interceptions in those games.
Good luck, Buffalo.