Long before Tom Brady became a living legend who guided the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl championships, he entered the NFL as the 199th pick of the 2000 draft and then spent nearly all of his rookie season as an unused backup behind Drew Bledsoe.
During a Tuesday appearance on FS1’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” program, Brady spoke about first-year Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo starting veteran signal-caller Jacoby Brissett over promising rookie Drake Maye for this coming Sunday’s regular-season opener at the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I’ve gone on record to say that I think that it’s best in my opinion for young quarterbacks or rookie quarterbacks to kind of watch a veteran do it,” Brady said, as shared by Stephen Douglas of Sports Illustrated. “There’s so much that goes on and quarterbacks need to process so much information so quickly and I think if you can have someone — I sat behind Drew Bledsoe my first year. What a great player he was. Someone that I got to watch and learn from. Aaron Rodgers watched behind Brett Favre. Patrick Mahomes watched behind Alex Smith.”
Brady generated headlines and also attracted some noteworthy responses when he somewhat controversially said in August he felt “the only reason why” teams “force” rookie quarterbacks selected with high draft picks to play early into their careers is because “we’ve dumbed the game down, which has allowed them to play.” Hall of Famer Peyton Manning and others subsequently argued that first-year pros need to learn about life in the NFL “the hard way,” but Mayo seemingly agrees with Brady.
It’s been repeated since the start of springtime workouts that Brissett is the “perfect” veteran to serve as a mentor for Maye and as a bridge option at the position for New England. Brady mentioned on Tuesday how “a real pro” such as Brissett can help Maye develop even though the 22-year-old ideally won’t see meaningful in-game action anytime soon.
“I just like to give them a little bit of time to acclimate themselves to the pro game, the pro schedule,” Brady added about rookie quarterbacks. “I mean, it’s a big difference between college football and professional football.”
It’s no surprise Brady feels passionately about this subject considering all he experienced and witnessed as a player across over two decades of work. With that said, Manning is just one example of a quarterback who ultimately benefitted from immediately starting and struggling as a rookie.
Of course, Maye could be one hit on Brissett away from facing Cincinnati’s first-team defense at Paycor Stadium on Sunday.
