Allow Me To Rant About The “Brady Is A System Quarterback” Debate For A Second

If you have ever debated with anyone about the Patriots and more specifically Tom being the best quarterback to walk this Earth, you have had some one say to you “Tom is just a system quarterback”. It is the oldest excuse in the book for trying to discount Brady’s remarkable legacy. It’s the rest of the football worlds weird rationalization for their team being beat by the bad man Mr. Brady year in, and year out. So I am sick of this being an actual topic every few months and need to rant.

This of course has come back up in recent news because of Chris Simms top 40 quarterback rankings where he has placed Tom Brady, fresh off his 6th Super Bowl Championship at 9. Yes you read that right, 9. Behind Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, and the list is still continuing to get worse and worse.

In the fall of 2014 Chris Simms said Tom Brady wasn’t even a Top 5 QB anymore. Since then Brady has won 3 Super Bowls in 5 years, won an MVP at age 40 & gone 71-19 (including playoffs). Clearly nobody should care if he ranks Brady 9 or 900; it means zero.pic.twitter.com/z7SCSwrTGA — Dan Kelley (@DanKelley66) June 21, 2019

My opinion is that any of the QBs ranked in front of Brees or Brady would of had the same success if not better if they were playing for saints or pats. — Chris Simms (@CSimmsQB) June 20, 2019

Simms really has two reasons for ranking Brady at 9. First, He isn’t the same Brady and we are using the run game so we don’t have to rely on him to throw the ball 40+ times a game. Second, he is benefitting off New England’s system so he just can’t be the best.

I want to hit on the first point first because it is just so ridiculous. Running the football in no way means that you can’t rely on your quarterback. For the first time since 2004 do we have a true, reliable backfield. Brady has not been able to bank on the run game in 15 years. The New England backfield has been a revolving door where we haven’t had this complete of a backfield in my lifetime. We have probably the best offensive line in football and a top 2 or 3 backfield as we stand now. You add that together with the fact our only consistent second option at WR the past 3 seasons has been Chris Hogan, kind makes you wanna hand the ball off doesn’t it? If Brady needs to throw 40 times a game there isn’t one Patriots fan or member of the staff that wouldn’t feel confident in that. Because the Patriots from 2014-now are 13-5 and 5-1 in the playoffs when Brady throws 40+ times. Brady himself when he slings in that much? He has 34 TD and 8 INT.

Now that I have that out of the way, let me get to the system argument and the point of me writing this blog.

To these constant haters like Simms and any given fan on Twitter these days there is this wild double standard they have for the team. It’s almost like being so successful is more of a curse than a reason to say “Hey Brady is really good at what he does”. If you say Brady is the best quarterback they will say it’s because of Belichick and the defense. If you say that Belichick is a football genius and the best coach, well it’s really because he has one of the best quaterbacks of all time. If you say the Patriots are a dynasty well its actually because they are just lucky. Which one is it? Is it Brady, is it Bill, is it just pure luck? It’s actually all of the above. To be a successful football team you have to have it all.

Football is unlike any other sports in the respect that it is more team oriented than anything else. You have to be a complete team pretty much always to win a championship and if you wanna compete for multiple years? Good luck, because that is not the way the NFL is set up.

Great player, great coach, and a little luck. Any dynasty has each of those pieces. Take anyone from history and you can find each of them. Brady shouldn’t be a victim of being chalked up to a system player because we have been able to stay on top for so long. Brady has been apart of multiple systems over his 19 year NFL career and had to adapt to a complete change in the way the game is played and looked at. When he got to New England we were a run first offense, then we switched to an air raid passing offense in what some would call his prime years from ’07-’10. Then we switched to a 2 TE set. Now have to change the entire system again with a new season approaching with a new roster. It’s not a system when it is changing every three years. It’s a mix of Belichick’s great GM mind and even more of a testament to Brady’s ability to get the best out of the players that are put on the field with him. I mean at one point in 2015 he was throwing to Keshawn Martin as his number 1 receiver target. Are we really gonna say that is just a system? Brady can’t possibly be the product of “the system” when there isn’t one singular system in New England. No dynasty can have just one system. Brady is the leader of the constantly changing system in New England and that just shows his adaptability.

I mean c’mon, does this look like a system to you?

Brady’s raw skill can’t go unnoticed either. He is one of the smartest men at the line we have ever seen. It’s not Belichick’s doing that he is driving down the field and putting the ball in the smallest of spaces when we need it most.

Brady's football placement and pocket presence in his 40s remains second to none pic.twitter.com/DcicJykxcK — LB (@BanGr0nkNandez) June 24, 2019

What a throw by Belichick, am I right?? Brady is an incredible phenomenal quaterback. The reason that the go to reason for Brady being the best ever is his two hands of rings is because he has them. We can talk about skill just as much because that’s there too. Packers fans love talking about Rodgers pure skill and that being why he is the best, but that’s because he doesn’t have the rings to show for it. You can absolutely consider team success with individual success when the player you’re talking about is the heart and soul of that team.

Brady is the best ever. There is no way around it. No matter what excuse it is for why he isn’t the best. Rings are forever and he is inevitable.