Tom Brady: What His Return Could Do For the New England Patriots

Tom Brady: the fiery leader of the New England Patriots. The quarterback that led his team to an unbeaten regular season, going 16-0 in 2007. Brady then took them to Super Bowl XLII where they lost a close game to the underdog New York Giants.

The Patriots were devastated. How could they have done so well in the regular season just to lose to the team that wasn’t supposed to even be in the playoffs? The New York Giants weren’t worthy of the postseason.

The Patriots were Goliath and the Giants were David. And David just so happened to defeat Goliath 17-14 in the last minutes of Super Bowl XLII.

So New England was supposed to avenge their loss and return to the ultimate stage. Tom Brady was supposed to have another incredible season and the Patriots were supposed to put the loss behind them and move on.

However, things never go the way you think they will. New England did not return to the ultimate stage. Tom Brady did not have another incredible season.  

New England didn’t even return to the postseason.

It was on the first game of the 2008 regular season against the Kansas City Chiefs when New England lost their star quarterback. Tom Brady suffered a torn ACL and would be out for the entirety of the 2008 season.

However, Bill Belichick and the rest of the team didn’t blink.

They threw in Matt Cassel, a quarterback who had not started a game since high school, and he flourished. When the Patriots should have been doing poorly without Brady, they were, in fact, doing well without him. Matt Cassel was managing games well and the Patriots were 5-3 halfway into the 2008 season.

It was by then that things started to pick up. New England only lost two more games the rest of the year and Matt Cassel was playing surprisingly well for someone who had not started a single college game at USC.

The Patriots ended the season 11-5, the record not being enough to claim them a wildcard spot. They did not make it into the playoffs.

So without Brady, the team continued to defy the odds. How could a seventh-round pick in Matt Cassel come in and play well when a majority of his starts came from high school?

Could it have been the system he was in? Could any quarterback have come in and have played as well, if not better than, Matt Cassel? Would Matt Cassel have played as well if he was on a team such as San Francisco or St. Louis?

The NFL would soon find out.

With Tom Brady seeming to be recovering, New England decided to trade their franchise-tagged quarterback Matt Cassel to the 2-14 Kansas City Chiefs along with Mike Vrabel for only a second round pick.

New England was clearly confident that their star quarterback would fully recover by the beginning of the 2009 regular season.

Now, with New England’s mind set on returning to the playoffs, they look to continue what they started in 2007. Everything is in place for another incredible season. The only question is will Tom Brady be the same quarterback that he was from 2001 to 2007, or will he lose a step?

The rust will certainly be there, of course, but will Brady be the same calm and collected quarterback that America knows and loves? Only time will tell.

With training camp over, the preseason is now underway. Most importantly, Tom Brady is looking like Tom Brady. He seems to be connecting with his receivers and the defense is looking quite decent.

So all the pieces are in place. If Tom Brady plays well this season, the Patriots are sure to make an appearance in the postseason. However, the season has yet to begin and to make guarantees would be foolish. Only time will tell how well New England does this season.

And as I said before, things never go the way you think they will.