Tom Brady bemoans NFL play, says ‘there’s a lot of mediocrity’

Less than a year removed from his legendary playing career, Tom Brady is clearly not impressed with the current level of play in the NFL.

“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL. I don’t see the excellence that I’ve seen in the past,” Brady said during a Monday appearance on “Stephen A .Smith Show”.

Brady, who retired earlier this year after a record-breaking 23-year career, cited numerous reasons for his assessment of the game, including coaching and player development.

“I think coaching isn’t as good as it used to be,” Brady said. “I don’t think the development of young players is as good as it used to be. I don’t think the programs are as good as they were.

“The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to seep into the actual performance of the game. So I think the product, in my opinion, is inferior to what it has been.”

NFL scoring declined for fourth straight season in 2023; teams combine to score just 43.3 points per game, down from 43.8 last season and 45.9 in 2021. The league is on pace for its lowest season average since 2009, when teams are combined for 42.9 points per game.

One likely cause of the drop in scoring is the high number of injuries to quarterbacks. Joe Burrow, Kirk Cousins, Deshaun Watson and Anthony Richardson lead the growing list of franchise quarterbacks who have suffered season-ending injuries, while other stars at the position – including Aaron Rodgers and Kyler Murray – have missed a lot of time.

Brady acknowledged the physical nature of the sport but lamented recent rule changes intended to protect players from injury.

“I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis, Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott and guys who impacted the game in some way – and every hit they would have made would have been a penalty. [today]”, Brady said. “You hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackled and not necessarily – why aren’t they talking to their player about how to protect themselves? … We were working on the fundamentals of these things all the time. Now they are constantly trying to be regulated.

“Offensive players have to protect themselves. It’s not up to a defensive player to protect an offensive player. A defensive player has to protect themselves. … I think a lot of the way the rules came into play allowed that – – you can basically play carefree and if someone hits you hard, there’s a penalty.”

Brady, 46, is the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdown passes. The seven-time Super Bowl champion and three-time league MVP said he doesn’t think “athletes have changed much” since he began his NFL career in 2000, instead pointing to development at the college level .

“I actually think college players were better prepared when I came out than they are today,” he said. “Simply because a lot of coaches change programs, and I would say there aren’t even that many college programs anymore. There are a lot of college teams, but not programs that develop players.

So when they get sent to the NFL, they might be athletic, but they don’t have a lot of skills developed to go pro. When I played at Michigan, I basically played in a college program which looked a lot like a college program.”