Tom Brady Shows Signs of New Life

Throughout and after the 2013 season, there was speculation that Tom Brady may have fallen from his “elite” status, and that was largely true. Though he was still a top twelve quarterback, Brady’s 2013 play did not match his status in the media. Many feared that he would continue to play like that (though he was still good- there was not much to worry about) or even get worse. In the beginning of this season, that seemed to be the case.

Tom Brady’s first four games in 2014 were on par with his 2013 standard. He was hitting enough throws to keep the offense afloat, but surrounding factors made his job tougher than it should have been, thus he could not shine. The offensive line was unimpressive as a whole, and right tackle Sebastian Vollmer was especially a liability. Brandon LaFell had yet to be properly incorporated into the offense. Subtle personnel changes opened up the New England offense, and with those changes, Tom Brady was “revived.”

With Brandon LaFell being turned into a more integral piece of the offense (will go into more depth later in this piece) and the offensive line improving due to personnel shuffles, Tom Brady turned what seemed to be another adequate season into a stellar first half of the season.

Tom Brady’s numbers through eight games in 2014:

First four games: 81/137 (59.12%), 5.8 yards per attempts, TD% of 2.91%, INT% of 1.46%

Last four games: 100/144 (69.44%), 8.8 yards per attempt, TD% of 9.72%, INT% of 0.00%