There has been significant discussion about how the New England Patriots offense might look without Tom Brady. And though Brady is the greatest quarterback ever, he is also 42 years old and appeared to show signs of decline, even with the offense centered around his strengths.
Brady has made a habit of elevating the play of those around him, but he couldn’t seem to do that in 2019. The question in New England is whether the Patriots may throw out the idea that their quarterback can pull everything together. Instead, they’ll let that quarterback — likely Jarrett Stidham — facilitate an offense that highlights other players.
But that offense will not be better than one which includes Brady, according to former Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich.
” … Look, you had a Hall of Fame quarterback for a very long time and in the quarterback position — if you have a great quarterback — their job is to make everybody better,” Ninkovich said on ESPN”s “Get Up.” “Their job is to check the offense into the best possible play against the defense. You talk about throwaways, that just means nobody was open and the quarterback was doing the smart thing and throwing the ball away. You get into a situation with a young quarterback, he might try to force the situation. The No. 1 way to lose in the NFL is turnovers. So if you don’t take care of the football, you don’t throw the ball away in situations you’re supposed to throw the ball away, you create turnovers. That’s how you lose. That’s losing football.
“It’s hard for me to think the Patriots are going to be better without Tom Brady. You talk about running the football. Yeah, if you’re not playing from ahead and you don’t have the lead, you can’t just run the football over and over and over again. You have to play from ahead to run the football. I don’t think the Patriots are in a better place without Tom Brady.”
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