Is Tom Brady’s departure a blessing in disguise for the New England Patriots? One former member of the team thinks so.
Former tight end Christian Fauria, now a host on WEEI, said that Brady’s priorities were holding back the offense, and the team will be better off without him going forward.
“They’re better off without him,” Fauria told co-hosts Glenn Ordway and Lou Merloni on Wednesday, via Rob Bradford of WEEI. “Can I tell you why? And it has nothing to do with Brady’s skillset. It’s not because he’s not good or he can’t throw it or he’s lost some speed on his fastball. It’s because where he was in his career, his age, what he wanted to achieve and what the Patriots were trying to achieve were completely different. So it was never going to work out. They were never going to see eye to eye.
“This offense is not going to be able to move forward with Brady as the quarterback, not because he sucks. Those throwaways were important. It’s because he wasn’t willing to adapt. There’s the difference. He wasn’t willing to let N’Keal Harry grow.”
Fauria added that Brady’s style of play and need to trust his receivers was detrimental to those in the offense.
“A veteran quarterback who wants to win and throw the football and is not willing to take risks and doesn’t want his stats being messed with and won’t throw interceptions and would rather throw it out of bounds, that’s the guy that is going to delay the development of your star wide receiver who you won’t throw the ball to because you don’t trust him because he doesn’t have a long enough track record,” Fauria added.
It’s certainly an interesting take. The New England offense did look fairly stagnant last year, but most attributed that to a lack of weapons around Brady as opposed to the quarterback himself. If Patriots players use his departure as motivation like one wide receiver is, it’s certainly not impossible for some players to take a step forward with a new quarterback.
Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski have teamed up yet again! Treat yourself or a friend with this great Tampa Fiesta shirt. You can buy it here.
