After only playing for the New England Patriots the first 20 seasons of his career, Tom Brady found himself a new NFL home this offseason when he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His move from the Patriots had been telegraphed for some time, and the team’s swift exit in the AFC Playoffs likely cemented the quarterback legend’s decision.
Now, according to Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, the team is ready to move on without Brady’s brilliance backing them up. Despite that, Belichick is not concerned about losing Tom Terrific.
“Well, we’ve played at other times without Tom,” the Patriots head coach said in a video interview with Rich Eisen of NFL Network.
“Whether it was the (2008) season after he was injured — we played 15 games with (Matt) Cassel and went 11-5 — or heading into the ’16 season with Jimmy (Garoppolo) and then Jacoby (Brissett) and Tom coming back after the four-game suspension. So there have been other times where we’ve dealt with that. We’ll do what we always do, which is try to prepare the team the best that we can, utilize our players and the skills that they have and put ourselves in the best position we can to be competitive and win. That’s what we always do, and we’ll continue to do that.”
Indeed, Brady’s presence was barely felt in that memorable campaign in which Brady was serving a suspension for “deflategate,” but there can be no denying that the team’s entire offense revolved around his abilities.
It will be fascinating to see how Belichick contends with that fact next season.