Why Tom Brady's MVP-Caliber 2017 Season May Be the Most Impressive Ever

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is having an incredible season. Through 16 weeks, he's thrown for 4,387 yards, 30 touchdowns and just eight interceptions. He's completed 67.5 percent of his passes and holds a quarterback rating of 104.2.

More importantly, Brady has the Patriots sitting at 12-3 and closing in on the AFC's No. 1 seed.

Brady may finish the 2017 season as the NFL's Most Valuable Player. There are other worthy candidates, to be sure, but it's hard to downplay Brady's play and what it has meant for New England.

This would be just another addition to his long list of MVP awards, right? Well, sort of. He's got four Super Bowl MVP awards and has been named regular-season MVP twice. However, this MVP award would be different.

Brady's third regular-season MVP campaign would be his most impressive—and one of the most impressive of all time.

We're here to examine why.

Pass Protection Has Been a Problem

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New England's offensive line was a strength for most of 2016, but it's been more of a liability this season. With one game to go, Brady has already been sacked 33 times. If he goes untouched in Week 17, he'll only have been sacked more in three seasons of his career.

Alarmingly, Brady has been hit, hurried and forced into making mistakes far more often than the sack total would indicate. One of Brady's greatest assets is his ability to sense pressure and get rid of the ball before he takes a sack. The fact he has been sacked 33 times is an issue.

To put things into perspective, consider this: Brady was named MVP in 2007 and 2010. In those seasons, he was sacked 21 and 25 times, respectively.

Brady is playing at just as high a level this season, even though he hasn't had an MVP-caliber line.

Brady Is Dealing with Plenty of New Faces

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We've seen the cast around Brady a lot over the years, but familiarity is still a big part of New England's sustained success.

The Patriots run a complex offense that relies on timing, trust and experience. Brady trusts guys who have been in the system for a while, and when he and another player aren't on the same page, it can hamper the offense.

Rather than just dealing with one or two new pieces this season, as is often the case, Brady has seen a number of newcomers in the huddle.

Tight end Dwayne Allen and running backs Mike Gillislee and Rex Burkhead joined the team in the offseason. So did wideout Brandin Cooks. Receivers Phillip Dorsett and Kenny Britt have since joined as well.

We've seen Brady and Cooks on different pages before, and Allen's inexperience in the system has led to little production. He has just 10 catches for 86 yards and a touchdown this season, even though fellow tight end Rob Gronkowski has missed two contests.

Piecing together a new offense is never easy, but Brady has kept things rolling through the transition.

His Favorite Receiver Has Been on IR

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One of the reasons the Patriots have been forced to work with some new offensive players is the fact wideout Julian Edelman was placed on injured reserve before the start of the season. With eight seasons in New England under his belt, Edelman has blossomed into Brady's most-trusted receiver.

"So much of the quarterback/receiver relationship is about trust," Brady explained on WEEI in Boston, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. "I see things a certain way, and the receiver needs to see it the exact same way in order for me to be able to anticipate where to go with the ball. He and I have just had that."

Brady and Edelman have shown that trust and what it can deliver several times in the past. Just think about Edelman's two huge catches in Super Bowls XLIX and LI—you know the ones.

Edelman's been out the entire year, though, which means Brady has had to play hero without his most-trusted weapon.

He's Had to Overcome an Inconsistent Defense

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Brady has had to play hero numerous times this season, too. This is because the Patriots haven't been quite as complete a team as we've seen in the past. In 2016, for example, Brady could depend on a 1,000-yard back in LeGarrette Blount and a defense that allowed an NFL-low 15.6 points per game.

The Patriots have made do with a committee backfield, but the defense has been less dominant and far less consistent than last year's incarnation.

This year's defense is giving up an average of 373.9 yards per game, fourth-most in the NFL. While New England is ranked a respectable fifth in scoring defense (19.3), there have been alarming stretches coupled with impressive ones that skew the stat.

The Patriots surrendered an average of 32.0 points per game over the first month of the season. They surrendered 27 to the Miami Dolphins during the Week-14 loss and would have surrendered 31 to the Pittsburgh Steelers last week had Jesse James' touchdown catch been upheld.

Brady has found himself in passing situations quite frequently because of this inconsistent defense. It's made the offense more predictable and has made life for Brady more difficult—in no small part because of the poor pass protection.

Brady has delivered more often than not this season.

He's Doing This at Age 40

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When watching Brady operate like an MVP this season, it's been easy to forget that he's doing so at the age of 40.

On Sunday, Brady passed ironman Brett Favre for the most passing yards by a 40-year-old quarterback. Favre's record was 4,202 yards during the 2009 season. Whatever Brady finishes with next week will be the new gold standard.

If Brady does indeed win the MVP award, he'll be the oldest to ever do so by a pretty significant margin. Rich Gannon and Peyton Manning both won the award at 37.

Brady's status as oldest-ever MVP would likely stand for quite some time, along with many other of his records.