The NFL is almost halfway through the season and star quarterbacks Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are doing badly, partly historically. Has the twilight of the gods dawned?
Tom Brady is considered the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) in the football world. Most recently, however, the “G” stood for “most annoying”. Things are not going well in Brady’s possibly last season – and you can read that more than clearly on the face of the now 45-year-old.
No consolation for Brady: He is in good company, because about 2,200 kilometers north of Brady’s place of work in Tampa Bay has one of his biggest competitors over the years Aaron Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers a very similar problem.
Fully up to speed before retiring
Brady now plays against players in the NFL who weren’t even born when he joined the NFL in 2000 with the New England Patriots. The 45-year-old has won seven Super Bowl titles, six with the Patriotsone in February 2021 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady also played outstandingly last season – put on strong pass values, but then just failed in the playoffs at the eventual champion, den Los Angeles Rams. Then he resigned, at the full height of his creativity – not many people can do that. And at the age of 44 at the time, nobody in the NFL anyway.
Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Historically Poor
But a few weeks later, the resignation came from the resignation. Brady went back to the Buccaneers. Only he himself knows whether private or sporting reasons were the deciding factor in the decision.
One thing is certain: this next year of his career did not start according to the ideas of the three-time MVP – it even threatens to become a disaster.
Currently they are “Bucs” with three wins and five losses. Never before has a Brady-led team had a record in an NFL season that had two losses more than wins – at any point.
Injury bad luck and calculable offense
The reasons for the misery are complex. The team has bad luck with injuries, especially in the offensive line, which Brady does not protect nearly as reliably this year as in the past two seasons. This also means that for the Bucs important running game is difficult to roll.
However, the new coach Todd Bowles, who inherited the retired Bruce Arians, can’t think of a creative alternative to the rather one-dimensional running game. Also your own defencewhich has been one of the best in the league in recent years, is sometimes surprisingly toothless.
Coordination issues between Brady and the receivers
And then there’s Brady, who hasn’t shown the elite performances to hide the weak points either. In Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Julio Jones he actually has strong pass receivers available, but the interaction snags. Brady recently threw against Baltimore the ball to an actually completely free-standing Evans in the end zone a good bit too high.
Against the Carolina Panthers let Evans make a perfect pass of his quarterbacks slip through your fingers on the way to a touchdown. It’s just a few scenes, but they show that this year at Tampa Bay running rough.
They have Bucs still lucky. Nothing is lost in the playoff race. This is also because in their divisionthe NFC South, currently no team is playing really well. The first place Atlanta Falcons also have “only” four wins under their belt. In no other division the leader is doing so badly. All division winners qualify directly for the playoffs.
Key game against the Los Angeles Rams
In order for that to succeed, however, the team has to improve significantly – and that probably means: Brady has to get close to his performance zenith of the last few years in the second half of the season, because he is currently not getting any help from the other parts of the team.
There are more rewarding situations for a 45-year-old who actually wanted to retire. At the weekend it’s against them rams – the champions also have big problems and are not much better off with three wins and four losses.
Aaron Rodgers and the Packers’ receiver problems
Even Aaron Rodgers had long had a goodbye to the Green Bay Packers flirted with, but then after a lot of quarrels decided to stay in order to attack again at the top.
And now, like Brady, the 38-year-old has three wins and five losses. Rodgers is in too Green Bay not the main sporting problem, but he is also a long way from his best form of the past few days.
The lack of quality on the is particularly striking receivers-Position. Rodgers’ favorite reference station Davante Adams has one of the Las Vegas Raiders given, but among other things a right to choose in the first round of the last drafts got, but used this for a defensive player. Just like your own first round pick.
Christian Watson, who has not yet been able to meet expectations, was only brought in on lap two. And while the division competitors Minnesota and Chicago Both shortly before the “transfer deadline” on November 1st, signed well-known passport recipients, Rodgers looked (again) in the tube.
Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers in action.
The last playoff without Rodgers or Brady was in 2008
Because the Minnesota Vikings with six wins and only one loss in the division already well before the Packers lying is one “wild card”which is awarded to the three best teams in the NFC and AFC, who their division didn’t win, arguably the only playoff chance for Green Bay. It’s still within reach, but given the achievements so far, it’s definitely not a sure-fire success – and maybe in the end it’s even Brady or Rodgers.
The last season without at least one of them in the playoffs was in 2008, in Rodgers’ first season as a starter, which Brady almost completely missed through injury.