Why Tom Brady Is So Good, According to Former NFL Quarterbacks

By | January 30, 2019

Tom Brady has all the bonafides to be one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history on paper, but his success—especially at age 41—sometimes defies all logic and reason.

Three-time NFL Pro Bowler Carson Palmer doesn’t fumble with niceties when describing the position he played for fifteen seasons—first as a Bengal, then a Raider, and finally as a Cardinal.

“You can either do it, or you can’t,” the former NFL quarterback tells Men’s Health.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Arizona Cardinals

Getty ImagesNorm Hall

Being able to either “do it” or not may sound like self-apparent logic, but Palmer’s sentiment expresses more the hidden talent factor — that the ability to “do it” is not self-apparent, not immediately obvious. “You see a lot of guys that are high draft picks and just fizzle out—aren’t successful.”

Since Palmer was drafted first overall in 2003, 10 of the last 15 number one draft picks were quarterbacks. Four of those players were also Heisman Trophy winners (including Palmer)—but only one of their number, Eli Manning, has become a Super Bowl champion. And then there’s Brady.

Selected in 2000 by the Patriots in the sixth round with the 199th pick out of 254, Brady was a tall but physically unimposing quarterback from the University of Michigan. The man now holds a record five rings, and is going for his sixth this weekend, holding sway of the league with Thanos-like domination. Brady holds several other records too, including most regular season wins, most combined (regular season and playoff) passing yards, and most combined passing touchdowns.

So how do you predict who might become the next Tom Brady? Palmer: “You don’t.”

Why Brady Stands Out

But why is it so hard to predict the next Brady, and why has Brady been able to “do it” when so many of his contemporaries have not?

Divisional Round - Los Angeles Chargers v New England Patriots

Getty ImagesAdam Glanzman

The instinctual response might be to credit Brady’s teammates; if there’s nothing particularly special about Brady athletically, perhaps he (and the position) benefits from talented receivers or, perhaps more importantly, a strong offensive line.

Brady’s career sack percentage is only 4.8, meaning more often than not, Brady gets his passes off. On the list above Brady for all time lowest sack percentage (Brady is 12th): Peyton Manning, Dan Marino (tied for first), and Drew Brees (fifth)—three of the most successful quarterbacks of the last three decades. But it doesn’t appear that Brady actually gets more time in the pocket than other QBs.

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Over the last three seasons in which the NFL kept data on time to throw (TT), Brady, surprisingly, falls somewhere in the middle of the pack at 2.6 to 2.7 seconds. (This year, the Buffalo Bills’ QB Josh Allen had the most time with 3.22 seconds). Brady’s success might come in part from a safe pocket, but this metric isn’t a reliable predictor of success for QBs, since Buffalo was dreadful this year.

Brady benefits from fluency

According Coach Bill Belichick, Brady’s success instead comes down to three distinct advantages: his work ethic, his ability to think strategically, and his ability to narrow his focus on the moment at hand. These might sound like banal coach-isms, but they suggest a factor of play that may be overlooked when assessing current QB’s.

To put it more plainly: Brady benefits from fluency, the ability to adapt to the situation at hand for optimal performance.

Divisional Round - Los Angeles Chargers v New England Patriots

Getty ImagesAdam Glanzman

Understanding Tom Brady’s Fluency

To understand what this fluency means for Brady’s game, it helps to appreciate just how complex a single play can be in today’s NFL. On any given play call, the quarterback must know everything, from the protection scheme of the offensive line to the routes for each receiver. And that’s just his offense. The quarterback also has to be able to recall and recognize each opponent’s defensive sets and schemes.

Many coaches will even call multiple plays at once, then give the quarterback the option to switch based on what he sees coming to the line. Newly un-retired head coach Jon Gruden (who taught NFL fans the beauty of “Spider 2 Y Banana”) notoriously runs a “kill” system offense.

Rich Gannon looks for his receiver

Rich Gannon

Getty ImagesStephen Dunn

Rich Gannon, who played quarterback under Gruden for three seasons in Oakland for the Raiders, explains how it is to take the reins of that structure: “It’s not unusual to call two to three plays in the huddle, and ask the [quarterback] to get to the best play possible based on the [defensive] front, the coverage, the down-and-distance, the situation in the game or the ability to change a protection, change the call, change from a strong side run to a weak-side run, change from a three-step drop to a seven-step drop.”

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Gannon would make calls in the huddle like: “Far West Right Slot with 2 Jet Zebra Drive C Smash KILL to Nickel 40 ALERT 358 X Logo Z Seam.” That would be three plays at once—thirty-three different assignments.

And that says nothing about game plans—entire strategies for the different opponents teams face each week.

Elite quarterbacks like Brady must remember between 200 and 300 new plays, per week, per game plan. “For a young guy like [Baker] Mayfield or [Sam] Darnold, a [coach] will probably keep it to 150 each week,” notes Palmer.

That doesn’t mean you can’t win with only 150 plays, or that success as a quarterback comes down to sheer quantitative brainpower. But thinking strategically within the moment gives top performers like Brady an advantage: the ability to better anticipate defenses and make on-the-line adjustments.

Football’s Grammar

Football fluency isn’t just developed through study and repetition, but also by keeping the language consistent. The intricacy and volume of a game plan (the vocabulary) depends on two important factors: the coordinator’s system and the years the quarterback has worked within the system.

Since the most difficult challenge for a quarterback may be integration into this “system”—the play-calling strategy to which his coaching staff subscribes—system proficiency may be on of the larger predictors of success. “Coaching staffs have a big influence on the success of one player over another,” says Palmer.

In theory, the longer a quarterback plays under a single coach and a single system, the more complex the play calling can be. That means that more line adjustments can be made, which can give the offense an edge its opponents.

Palmer transitioned between several different staffs and systems during his career, and had to integrate into incredibly different play-calling schemes, where colors, numbers, and other verbal constructs might have totally different meanings (STRONG RIGHT ACT 4 826 OVER vs. BROWN RIGHT POUND 2 POISON, for example). While he had a largely productive career, the changes were difficult.

Sticking to one system is a luxury, according to Gannon. “Look at Alex Smith,” he says. “His first six years, he had 6 different play callers, 6 different systems of football learned. That’s like learning Spanish one year. Second year: we come in and take that book away from you, and we give you a German book. And next year: lets learn Polish. You’re not able to draw on your past experiences because you’re constantly learning something new. That’s dysfunctional for the development of a young quarterback.”

“You’re constantly learning something new. That’s dysfunctional for the development of a young QB.”

This isn’t just a fluke with Brady; the top quarterbacks of the last 20 years (Brady, Brees, Manning, and Favre) all benefited from (relatively) consistent systems and coaching staffs. (Brady is now on his 19th season with Belichick; Brees is on his 12th with Sean Payton).

Perhaps the largest key to Brady’s success, then, is one that the notoriously tight-lipped Belichick left out of the list: his coaching structure.


When Brady and Belichick take the field in Atlanta for the Super Bowl this year, they’ll face another former number 1 pick in the Ram’s Jared Goff. What makes this game particularly exciting, however, is that the real matchup to watch won’t necessarily be the dueling QBs—it will be between Belichick and 33-year-old Rams coach Sean McVay, the offensive wunderkind who has taken the league by storm. A win for McVay and Goff’s partnership could mark the passing of the torch to the next great coach-QB team, but they’ll have to pull out every stop to take the Lombardi Trophy from the most successful relationship in football history.

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