At some point, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's play is going to start to go down and Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, who played into his 40's, thinks that time is coming soon.
Moon was one of many former quarterbacks interviewed by Tyler Dunne of Bleacher Report for a feature about Brady and while some former quarterbacks think he will still play at high level for many more years, Moon doesn't think that is the case.
“Most people think with a quarterback, it's your arm. Your arm is important, but if you don't have your legs working with the rest of your body—being able to have those quick-twitch movements to move in the pocket to slide and buy yourself a bit more time—those are the things you start to see that don't happen as fast,” Moon said. “That's where Tom used to excel. Even though he's not a great athlete, a scrambler or anything like that, he could really slide and move around the pocket as well as any quarterback and manipulate the pocket. Those things are starting to slow down a little bit more for him as he gets a little bit older.”
The stats are still good for Brady this year, throwing for 3,700 yards, 23 touchdowns, and six interceptions, but those stats are down a bit from previous years.
Moon thinks those stats are a good example of why he believes the deterioration is right around the corner.
“The numbers are starting to show that there's a deterioration coming. Especially when you talk about the blitzing because that's something he used to really excel at. You do start to lose some of your reflexes and responses. I started to figure that out later on in my career, too. Even though your mind knows where you should be going, sometimes your body just doesn't react as fast. You're starting to see some of that with him.”
Brady is 41 years old and it seems to be a year to year evaluation if he will play another year but all signs point to him playing at least a few more years.
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