We haven’t hit Thanksgiving yet but Tom Brady has already thrown more interceptions this season than he did in all of 2019. He’s currently on pace for 13 interceptions, a mark he hasn’t hit since 2009.
Big interceptions totals seem to be a feature of Bruce Arians’ offense, especially in a quarterback’s first year in the system, but Brady’s issues could also be a feature of no longer being around the greatest defensive mind in the history of the sport.
When asked about Brady’s recent struggles, Arians said Tuesday that Brady might be having trouble reading coverages, which has led to some mental mistakes and wayward passes downfield.
Arians said Brady might be getting confused by coverages with misreads resulting in inaccurate throws in recent games, but he hasn't seen it in practice.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) November 24, 2020
So where does Belichick come in? Well, during an appearance on Chris Vasseur’s Make Defense Great Again podcast, former Pats defensive coordinator Dean Pees explained how Belichick would spend most his time during the week coaching up Brady on what to expect from the defense they were going up against that week…
“Coach Belichick was a really great defensive coordinator but he spent maybe 45 minutes a week with us on defense … [The rest of the time] he spent with Tom Brady, telling Tom Brady ‘Here’s what those defenses are doing against you,’ which was perfect. He sat in the meeting room with Tom every day in individual meetings and unit meetings. [Belichick] would have team meetings but I’d have unit meetings and he was never in there. …
He did an incredible job of sitting with Tom and we’re playing the Jets or something and he’s telling Tom ‘Here’s what to look for. Here’s what that safety’s showing you. Here’s what the linebacker’s showing you.’ I mean, what a great tool to have a guy like that, with that experience, sitting with your quarterback, teaching him how to read defenses.”
That is quite the tool and one that Brady no longer enjoys.
Now, we don’t know if that’s actually the root cause of Brady’s inflated interception numbers, but we can’t discount the theory outright. At the very least, that anecdote combined with what we’ve seen from Brady this season adds another interesting layer to the great “Brady v. Belichick” debate.
