On the morning after the full season after, Tom Brady was hit with this perfect question from Tampa Bay’s coach, Bruce Arians.
“Are you still on the yacht?” Arians asked.
Isn’t he always on the yacht of life? Or resort? Or – count ‘em – the now seven-ringed circus?
“Nah, I’m home,’' said Brady, his voice raspy from a long, happy night in which he got two hours of sleep.
It was a different team for Brady this year, a different set of doubts to overcome for this seventh Super Bowl win, this one 31-9 over Kansas City. But it carried the same lesson to the Dolphins and about 25 other teams: Until you have one of the six or seven franchise quarterbacks in the league, you don’t have a prayer.
That’s why the Dolphins must have interest in trading for Houston’s DeShaun Watson — if he’s even traded. Consistent winning of the kind New England had for 19 years with Brady and Tampa had this year starts at that position.
Here’s all you need to know: The four final teams in the postseason ranked first, second, third and sixth in scoring this year. Tampa Bay’s defense set the table for winning in the postseason. Still, Tampa Bay scored at least 30 points in every playoff game after ranking third at 30.8 points in the regular season.
Arians already has put the bar at 35 points a game next year.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,’' he said. “I was [angry] because we had 40 or 45 [in the Super Bowl]. We left a few plays out there.”
What did Brady bring — and equally, what did New England surprisingly lose through football hubris and miscalculations by coach Bill Belichick? Belichick is the big loser here. He should never have allowed this partnership to break up. Brady’s seven ring says that clearly.
“When you bring a winner in and he’s running the ship it makes a total difference in locker room and every time you step on the field,’' Arians said. “We came behind I think from 17 points down twice this year … We believed. It permeated through our whole locker room, belief, we were going to do this and knowing he’d been there and done it — it changed our whole football team.”
Don’t say: That’s obvious. Teams back off taking quarterbacks all the time. Some of that is it’s a tough position to judge — the drafting is a dart throw history shows. The Dolphins passed on quarterbacks for years before manipulating a three-year stretch to be in position for Tagovailoa. Only two teams went hard after Brady last offseason – Tampa Bay and Los Angeles Chargers.
It’s why 60 percent of any general manager’s job is getting the right quarterback. It’s why, for now, General Manager Chris Grier will rise or fall with Tua Tagovaila. We can talk around that and pretend everything else matters — but everything else matters only in the context of having the quarterback.
Kansas City’s loss underlined that thought. They have the franchise quarterback in Patrick Mahomes. They just had glaring deficiencies on the offensive line due to injuries to both starting tackles. Tampa Bay’s defensive line dominated that makeshift offensive line in a way that didn’t allow Mahomes to be Mahomes.
But you can get by without a great line — just not with a terrible one. The quarterback has to be Brady- or Mahomes-like to compete at that level. If you have one of those six or seven QBs you guarantee you keep him, and if you don’t have one of them a former Dolphins GM once said, “I wake up in the middle of the night figuring how to get one.”
Brady, at 43, didn’t just change Tampa Bay from a non-playoff team to the Super Bowl champs. He wasn’t just the Most Valuable Player of that Super Bowl. He might as well be the NFL’s executive of the year, too.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski (two touchdowns Sunday), receiver Antonio Brown (one touchdown) and running back Leonard Fournette all signed on this year because of the quarterback. Brady was asked the predictable question about ranking his seven rings. He gave an equally predictable answer
“Every year’s different,’' Brady said. “This year has been incredible for me. It was great. That’s where I rank it, it’s been great incredibly fun.”
It usually is for him. Half his seasons have ended in a Super Bowl. He’s won seven of them. And, still, he’s a lesson from afar for teams like the Dolphins.
