Breer looks for Collins' stuff, ends up talking Brady

[Deus Irae]

Believe it or not, the primary reaction I got from other sources on other teams in the wake of the Patriots dealing off Jamie Collins actually involved Tom Brady.

“(Bill Belichick) can do whatever he wants until 12 isn’t there anymore,” said one veteran rival defensive coach. “It’s not even a question.”

“Anything they do, they get the benefit of the doubt because it all works out,” said another rival personnel executive. “But it’s Brady. I get that they won without Brady, but that would be a week-in/week-out team without him. … That team, with Jimmy (Garoppolo), no one’s afraid of them. It’s a normal game for you. With Brady, it’s a championship team every week.

Norv Turner, Minnesota Vikings fallout; NFL weaknesses | The MMQB with Peter King

 

[BradyFTW!]

Norv Turner, Minnesota Vikings fallout; NFL weaknesses | The MMQB with Peter King

I swear, at this point it seems to be a monthly swing. At the start of the month, Brady's just a system QB and Belichick is the mastermind who makes it all happen. By the end of the month, the Patriots would be just another team if not for Brady.

 

[Observer]

It is true. With Brady this is a championship team no matter what is going on with the roster. Without Brady it is just a good team.

 

[rochrist]

Norv Turner, Minnesota Vikings fallout; NFL weaknesses | The MMQB with Peter King

That team, with Jimmy (Garoppolo), no one’s afraid of them. It’s a normal game for you.

Sure, until he beats your brains in 5 or 6 more times. I think this says as much about the stupidity of NFL management as it does anything else.

 

[Deus Irae]

That team, with Jimmy (Garoppolo), no one’s afraid of them. It’s a normal game for you.

Sure, until he beats your brains in 5 or 6 more times. I think this says as much about the stupidity of NFL management as it does anything else.

I think it accurately acknowledges the greatness of Brady.

 

[NashuaPats]

Why is it alway either or with Brady and Belichick? I don't remember the same being true of Jordan and Phil Jackson. They are both great and while relying on each other, they make each other better. That should be revered, not picked apart.

 

[Gronkowski123]

belichick only gets away with these types of deals because tom can erase almost everything..

 

[Deus Irae]

Why is it alway either or with Brady and Belichick? I don't remember the same being true of Jordan and Phil Jackson. They are both great and while relying on each other, they make each other better. That should be revered, not picked apart.

That's not an either/or. I think people here may be misreading it.

 

[Mike the Brit]

T.J. Moe, whose podcast on the Pats was the most revealing thing to have come out in a long time, says that, in his opinion, the Patriots have only two really exceptional players, Brady and Gronk, and that other teams have exceptional players too. What sets the Pats aside is the intensity and professionalism with which they are prepared.

 

[Ross12]

Jimmy beat Arizona and dropped multiple touchdowns on Miami without much trouble before getting hurt before halftime. Why would someone see that effort and say "no one's afraid of him"? Are they daft?

I mean yeah, he's not the GOAT, but he still played pretty damn well.

 

[Deus Irae]

T.J. Moe, whose podcast on the Pats was the most revealing thing to have come out in a long time, says that, in his opinion, the Patriots have only two really exceptional players, Brady and Gronk, and that other teams have exceptional players too. What sets the Pats aside is the intensity and professionalism with which they are prepared.

Tom Brady was just named player of the month for the 9th time, surpassing Manning's record. Given the league's obvious pro-Manning slant throughout the 5head's career, I'd say that pretty conclusively demonstrates that no other team has a Brady.

 

[Deus Irae]

Jimmy beat Arizona and dropped multiple touchdowns on Miami without much trouble before getting hurt before halftime. Why would someone see that effort and say "no one's afraid of him"? Are they daft?

I mean yeah, he's not the GOAT, but he still played pretty damn well.

Arizona and Miami are crap this year. Well, crap's a little strong for Arizona, but they started out as "crap" and have improved to somewhere between "pretty bad" and "very mediocre".

 

[NashuaPats]

That's not an either/or. I think people here may be misreading it.

Probably so. My frustration on this matter runs deep.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

I swear, at this point it seems to be a monthly swing. At the start of the month, Brady's just a system QB and Belichick is the mastermind who makes it all happen. By the end of the month, the Patriots would be just another team if not for Brady.

When all you care about is clicks, posting (separate) articles with 2 opposing viewpoints (no matter how cleverly disguised) gets you all the available clicks. Who cares if there's only 1 day or 2 weeks between the articles.

 

[Froob]

I swear, at this point it seems to be a monthly swing. At the start of the month, Brady's just a system QB and Belichick is the mastermind who makes it all happen. By the end of the month, the Patriots would be just another team if not for Brady.

It's easier to just say they're both cheats. If the other team had cool refreshing Gatorade they'd be scrubs.

 

[captain insano]

belichick only gets away with these types of deals because tom can erase almost everything..

he gets away with it because he's right most of the time.

 

[Deus Irae]

Probably so. My frustration on this matter runs deep.

Think of it this way:

Since Brady, every single questionable call of this level (Mankins/Moss/etc..., and I'm not posting this to get into the yes/no of whether or not any particular one was a mistake) has been overcome, with one exception. The Seymour move wasn't overcome, and that's the one year that Brady was mortal, because it was his ACL comeback year.

That doesn't mean Brady's infallible, or BB is never right/never wrong. It just means that Brady's the NFL's best deodorant, which is something that shouldn't be controversial to anyone here.

I just find it interesting to see that other GMs around the NFL are acknowledging it.

 

[slam]

If you want to say how great Brady is, they'll say it's all Belichick.
If you want to say how great Belichick is, they'll say it's all Brady.
If you want to say how great they both are, they'll say it's all cheating.

 

[Rob0729]

People forget that Belichick had an 11-5 record with Matt Cassel. People discount that achievement because because of a fluke occurrence that happened only one other time in NFL history, 11-5 wasn't good enough to get into the playoffs.

Sure that team probably had no shot of getting to the Super Bowl if they got in and they didn't beat any of the playoff teams they faced (although most were early in the season when the Pats were trying to figure out how to run the offense without Brady), but Cassel was a marginal starter and teams have had easier schedules than the Pats had in 2008 and never gotten close to 11-5.

Yes, Brady gives Belichick the luxury to take risks that other Head Coaches and GMs cannot. But Belichick has shown he can win without any one player including Brady. Maybe not a Super Bowl without Brady, but get into the playoffs.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

T.J. Moe, whose podcast on the Pats was the most revealing thing to have come out in a long time, says that, in his opinion, the Patriots have only two really exceptional players, Brady and Gronk, and that other teams have exceptional players too. What sets the Pats aside is the intensity and professionalism with which they are prepared.

Someone else agrees with T.J. Moe.

Belichick's keynote address: Passion plus (warning: ESPN but Mike Reiss)

“It comes down a couple things. No. 1, of course, is talent. But really, everybody in the National Football League has talent. If they didn’t have talent, they wouldn’t be in the league. It comes in varying degrees, we understand that, and whatever you get with the player, you get with the player. You get his strength, his speed, his explosiveness, his intelligence, his work ethic, whatever physical condition he is and so forth. I don’t want to say it’s even but it’s pretty comparable in the big picture, from team to team, based on the way our system is set up with free agency, salary cap, and draft order.

“The big thing I’d say we look for, which would try to differentiate the players for us, are players with passion; guys that really love football. As we all know from our jobs, if you love what you’re doing you don’t feel like you’re working. If you don’t like what you’re doing, then every step of the way is just painful torture. We don’t want people who are in football because of the lifestyle it brings or the opportunities [or rewards] from it. We want people who are in our business because they love doing it.

....

“And then it goes to preparation. We work very hard in our preparation in every area. I believe to have a championship team you want to have a championship team in every area, whether that’s your starting quarterback, your strength coach, your medical staff, your area scouts, whatever it happens to be. We’re trying to work at a championship level of performance in every one of those areas. …"

Edit: I really love this article in general, and it provides a certain amount of insight into the possible motivations behind the Collins trade. Nothing that hasn't been speculated, but this is from the big kahuna himself.