Alright, so I felt compelled to post this blog after seeing people be unable to comprehend the obvious time and time and time again regarding the skill talent surrounding Tom Brady. People fail to understand that Tom has been surrounded by top level "talent" and yet those exact same players have managed to produce similar or better numbers WITHOUT Tom. And it isn't just one guy, it isn't just two guys, but it is virtually EVERYONE. A case can be made here and there as you will see below, but that is missing the larger point.
That larger point is that Tom is unable to make players better. Peyton's players do better WITH him than without him. Why don't Tom's? After all if Tom is so "great" surely the vast majority of his players will put up better numbers with him at QB than say Aaron Brooks. Interestingly enough, that just isn't the reality.
Thus, I am going to provide the information below and you can decide for yourselves. If you want to trick yourself into believing a false reality and ignore the facts, then by all means, more power to you.
Some of Brady's "lack of talent" he's had:
Caldwell: 2nd Round Pick. 8th Receiver Taken
Gaffney: 2nd Round Pick: 4th Receiver Taken
Gabriel: 5th Round Pick: 19th Receiver Taken
Graham: 1st Round Pick: 2nd TE Taken (after Shockey)
Faulk: 2nd Round Pick: 4th RB Taken (Edge and Ricky Williams ahead)
Edwards: 2nd Round Pick: 1st FB Taken
Branch: 2nd Round Pick. 11th Receiver Taken
Stallworth: 1st Round Pick. 1st Receiver Taken
Bethel J.: 2nd Round Pick: 5th Receiver Taken
Maroney: 1st Round Pick: 2nd RB Taken (2 spots AHEAD of Addai)
Heath Evans: 3rd Round Pick: 1st FB Taken
Kyle Brady: 1st Round Pick: 1st TE Taken
Ben Watson: 1st Round Pick: 2nd TE Taken (after Kellen Winslow)
Randy Moss: 1st Rond Pick: 2nd Receiver Taken
Andre Davis: 2nd Round Pick: 7th Receiver Taken
Fauria: 2nd Round Pick: 3rd TE Taken
Zereoue: 3rd Round Pick: 9th RB Taken
Cloud: 2nd Round Pick: 6th RB Taken
Dillon: 2nd Round Pick: 5th RB Taken
A Smith: 1st Round Pick: 2nd RB Taken (behind Dunn ahead of Tiki Barber)
Stokes: 1st Round Pick: 3rd Receiver Taken (#10 Overall)
Ward: 3rd Round Pick: 8th Receiver Taken
Hayes: 4th Round Pick: 16th Receiver Taken
Dwight: 4th Round Pick: 17th Receiver Taken
Redmond: 3rd Round: 7th RB Taken
Cleeland: 2nd Round Pick: 1st TE Taken
Small: 5th Round: 11th Receiver Taken
Emanuel: 2nd Round: 10th Receiver Taken
C Johnson: 1st Round: 1st Receiver Taken
Glenn: 1st Round: 2nd Receiver Taken (#7 Overall)
Poor guy has really suffered in that department.
For those of you that say that draft status is not important, then I've already got that covered:
http://the-bong-show.blogs.sportsline.com/mcc/blogs/entry/7488048/7966453
Now here are the players listed above in order:
Reche Caldwell:
2006 With Tom Brady: 61 catches, 760 yards, 12.5 YPC, 4 TD's
2004 W/ Brees & Flutie: 18 catches, 310 yards, 17.2 YPC, 3 TD's
In this case, Reche played all 16 games with Tom compared to just 6 games (really only 5 full games due to injury) with Drew Brees and the 762 year old Doug Flutie. So for the sake of comparison, if we pro-rated out his numbers:
2004 Pro-Rated: 48 catches, 827 yards, 17.2 YPC, 8 TD's
So he was clearly on his path to a FAR greater season with Brees and Flutie. Too bad for him he tore his ACL in game 6. But hey, if you don't think he would have produced anything of substance in the last 10+ games of that season and you are so desperate to find someone to support Tom's case, then by all means feel free to chalk the guy with the torn ACL on your list.
Jabar Gaffney:
With Houston: Averaged 43 catches, 502 yards, 11.7 YPC, 2 TD's
With Patriots: Averaged 24 catches, 296 yards, 12.6 YPC, 3 TD's
In Houston, Gaffney started out as a rookie and had
David Carr, Tony Banks, Dave Ragone as his QB's starting multiple games there.
Doug Gabriel:
2006 With Brady: 25 catches, 344 yards, 13.8 YPC, 3 TD's
2005 W/ Oakland: 37 catches, 554 yards, 15.0 YPC, 3 TD's
Daniel Graham:
With Brady: Averaged 24 catches, 278 yards, 11.6 YPC, 3 TD's
W/Out Tom: Averaged 24 catches, 246 yards, 10.3 YPC, 2 TD's
(Graham is playing with Cutler who has played a whole 21 games in his career... looks pretty darn similar to me.)
Kevin Faulk:
2003 With Brady: 1,078 Yards From Scrimmage, 3.6 Yards Per Carry, 9.2 Yards Per Catch, 0 Rushing TD's, 0 Receiving TD's
2000 W/ Bledsoe: 1,035 Yards From Scrimmage, 3.5 Yards Per Carry, 9.1 Yards Per Catch, 4 Rushing TD's, 1 Receiving TD
Note: Faulk played his entire career on the Patriots.
Marc Edwards:
2001 With Brady: 307 Yards From Scrimmage, 2.8 Yards Per Carry, 6.6 Yards Per Catch, 1 Rushing TD, 2 Receiving TD's
1998 W/ San Fran: 312 Yards From Scrimmage, 4.3 Yards Per Carry, 9.9 Yards Per Catch, 1 Rushing TD, 2 Receiving TD's
Deion Branch:
With Brady: Averaged 53 catches, 686 yards, 12.9 YPC, 3.5 TD's
W/Out Tom: Averaged 51 catches, 693 yards, 13.6 YPC, 4 TD's
Branch has played in 25 games in Seattle... 5 of those with
Seneca Wallace at them helm. In fact, Branch would have caught more TD's with Seneca Wallace pro-rated to an entire season than he ever did with
Tom Brady.
He was injured in Seattle was well. If we pro-rate his numbers in Seattle last year, he would have had: 71 catches, 962 yards, 13.5 YPC, 6 TD's. That's right up there with Tom where he put up 78 catches, 998 yards, 12.8 YPC, 5 TD's. Moreover, he got hurt in the 5th game of the season and was never the same after. The three games prior to getting injured, he put up:
7 catches for 122 yards
6 catches for 77 yards and a TD
7 catches for 130 yards
He never had a stretch like that with Brady. In fact, he only had four 100 yard games in his entire 4 seasons with Brady and never even had a mulitple TD game like he did in Seattle.
The guy tore his ACL and his entire career is in jeopardy.
Donte Stallworth:
2007 With Brady: 46 catches, 697 yards, 15.2 YPC, 3 TD's
2006 W/ Eagles: 38 catches, 725 yards, 19.1 YPC, 5 TD's
2005 W/ Saints: 70 catches, 945 yards, 13.5 YPC, 7 TD's
Note: Stallworth played only 12 games in Philly with McNabb and Garcia starting multiple games. In 2005, he had Aaron Brooks and
Todd Bouman starting multiple games. In fact, 1/8th of the league has now wanted Stallworth on their team in 4 consecutive years. Yet amazingly, he couldn't post up better numbers with the "great" Tom Brady in the most prolific offense in the history of the league than he could for the vast majority of career elsewhere.
Bethel Johnson:
With Brady: Averaged 10 catches, 150 yards, 15.0 YPC, 1 TD
W/Out Tom: Averaged 9 catches, 156 yards, 17.3 YPC, 0 TD's
(His QB's were Brady Johnson and Tavaris Jackson) He also injured his knee which caused the
Saints to cut him. The
Eagles signed him and cut him after failing a physical. The
Texans had also signed him. Seems like there was quite a bit of interest in someone who sucked. ;)
Laurence Maroney:
With Brady: 1,890 Yards From Scrimmage, 4.4 Yards Per Carry, 11.9 Yards Per Catch, 12 Rushing TD's, 1 Receiving TD
Now let's compare Maroney taken as the #21 pick overall versus Addai taken as the #30 pick in the exact same draft:
Addai in Indy: 2,842 Yards From Scrimmage, 4.4 Yards Per Carry, 8.5 Yards Per Catch, 19 Rushing TD's, 4 Receiving TD's
Heath Evans:
Before coming to New England, Evans had multiple touches in a single season only one time in his entire career. In his three years in New England, he's never been below 25 touches. In Seattle, he was a blocking back for Ricky Watters and
Shaun Alexander. New England uses him completely differe
