From coaching to developing young players to schemes, Tom Brady doesn’t hold back on his thoughts on the quality of today’s NFL.
“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in the NFL today. I don’t see the excellence that I saw in the past,” Brady said Monday on “The Stephen A. Smith Show.”
“I don’t think the coaching is as good as it used to be,” Brady said. “I don’t think the development of young players is as good as it used to be. I don’t think the programs are as good as they used to be.”
Brady, 46, has won seven Super Bowls in his 23-year career with the Patriots (2002, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2017, 2019) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2021) Champion, retired earlier this year. He also became the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdown passes.
Brady said one of the biggest reasons for the league’s decline is some of the side effects of recent rule changes.
“Those rules allow a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game,” Brady said.
He noted the rule change was to protect players from injury, but said it had led to a “carefree” attitude on the pitch.
“Offensive players need to protect themselves. Defensive players shouldn’t be protecting offensive players. Defensive players need to protect themselves… I think a lot of the ways the rules work allow for that – you can basically play without worries , if someone hits you hard, you will be punished.”
Brady cited Ray Lewis, Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott as examples of past players who would face challenges playing under today’s rules.
“… Every hit they take is punished,” Brady said. “You hear coaches complaining about their players getting tackled, but not necessarily — why don’t they talk to their players about how to protect themselves? … We used to work on the basics of these things. Now they'” We are always trying to be regulated. “
Brady also blamed the NFL’s scoring decline over the past four seasons on developments at the college level rather than changes in the athletes themselves, with teams averaging just 43.3 points per game this season, down from 45.9 points in 2021.
“I actually think college players were better prepared when I came out than they are now,” he said. “Just because so many coaches are changing programs, I would say there aren’t even a lot of college programs anymore. There are a lot of college teams, but there are no programs to develop players.
“So when they get to the NFL, they may have the athleticism, but they don’t have a lot of the skills to be a pro. When I played at Michigan, I basically played in a college program that was very similar to In “Professional Environment. When I see these different players coming in, they’re not as prepared as they were before, and I think the game has shown that over the last 12 to 13 years. I think things have declined a bit. “
—Scene-level media