The Real Tom Brady

Alright, Tom Brady. The grace period is over. Now it’s time to be yourself again. That means the accurate surgeon capable of lighting up the scoreboard with few errors should finally be back. You’ve had enough time to work out the kinks. No more excuses.

I’m holding true to my belief that Brady needed seven to eight weeks to find his comfort zone. As the season went on, we noticed the progress Brady made, step by step.

His second half against Buffalo was a complete 180 of the first half. After being blitzed nearly to death against the New York Jets, Brady carved up Atlanta and starred down Baltimore’s Ray Lewis-led defense and came out ahead.

Not happy with his inaccuracy on deep balls against Denver, Brady put on a clinic against Tennessee, throwing six touchdowns and connecting on a handful of passes downfield. And Brady put it all together in London in a sound defeat of Tampa Bay.

I gave Brady the same timetable that Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning needed to get right last year. Manning went from your average quarterback to league MVP in the course of half a season. If Brady is to reclaim his position in the NFL quarterback hierarchy, the second half of the season is when he must re-establish himself.

At this point, Brady isn’t number 1 or 1A. Since Brady missed almost all of last season, Manning held his place while New Orleans’ Drew Brees finally became recognized as one of the elite passers in the league. Brady still has some work to do to be considered an elite QB again. Past accomplishments don’t carry over.

Brady made strides thus far, from finding the correct form, to pocket awareness, and not looking at the pass rush. But the evolution isn’t complete. The mistakes made against the Jets and Denver must be corrected. He’ll have to handle pressure a lot better and make teams pay for sending extra pass rushers. Brady also has to see the whole field better. He had real problems when the Broncos took away WRs Randy Moss and Wes Welker.

Lastly, Tom must answer whether big, physical corners a problem for Brady and Moss. Jets’ Darrell Revis shut down Moss and had an interception. And Aqib Talib had enough reach to pick off a deep pass to WR Brandon Tate. Certainly Moss has to step up and beat his man if he’s one-on-one with anybody. Then it is up to Brady to put the pass where only Moss can get it.

Of course Moss isn’t the only player that must raise his game to help Brady out. The run game has a lot of room for improvement. TE Ben Watson has to keep his career year pace going. And with the third receiver situation unsettled, someone has to step up and become the dependable safety valve Brady was accustomed to.

But this offense goes when Brady is on. He had enough time to break the rust and smooth out the problems. The second half has some tough match-ups, including four divisional games and encounters with the two remaining undefeated teams, the Saints and Colts.

Brady had his chance to toy with the crippled Tennessee secondary and sorry Buccaneers. Playtime is over. The next step is stomping any team in the way and Brady must precisely lead the march.