Seemingly once a week since the day he turned 35 a few years ago, the topic of Tom Brady's age gets discussed. Brady seems tired of questions about his age, and is on the record as saying he wants to play past age 40.
And if he keeps playing the way he has through the first three weeks of this season - heck, even if he plays at 75 percent of his current level - it's hard to think Brady won't be piloting an offense for four or five more years.
In leading the Patriots to a 51-17 win over Jacksonville on Sunday, Brady completed 33-of-42 passes (78.6 percent) for 358 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Gus Bradley defense or not, it's no surprise to see Brady have so much success against the Jaguars - this is, after all, the same franchise he once set an NFL postseason record against, completing 26-of-28 passes (92.9 percent) in the 2008 divisional round.
New England is now 3-0, and Brady is off to a scorching start: he's completing over 72 percent of his passes, is averaging 370 passing yards per, and has nine touchdowns with no interceptions.
In case you're new to this football thing, that's pretty good. Though amazingly, not as good through three games as Brady was in 2007 - that season, through three games, Brady had completed nearly 80 percent of his passes, with 10 touchdowns but one interception. With 133 pass attempts and no picks, Brady on Sunday broke Peyton Manning's record for most consecutive passes without an interception to start a season; Manning opened the 2010 season with 126 passes before being intercepted.
Back then, however, Brady was just 30, and by conventional wisdom was at his athletic peak. At 38, he should be falling off but appears to be as good as he's ever been.
Brady has always been incredibly committed to his game preparation, and in recent years, he's dedicated himself to doing everything possible to keep himself in peak physical and mental condition (avocado ice cream, anyone?). No one can elude Father Time, but Brady is certainly keeping him at arm's length.
I've studied/played against this Pats offense for a long time, & through 3 wks this might be the most methodical & efficient I've seen them.
— Scott Fujita (@sfujita55) September 27, 2015
Some of Brady's play thus far this year could be attributed to his desire to re-prove to the NFL and anyone else bothering to watch that he is a transcendent player after having his name and reputation dragged through the mud during the Deflategate saga. The Patriots as a franchise took the '07 season as a "we'll show you" tour after Spygate, and Brady could be doing much the same.
Coaches this week credited his work ethic.
Said offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels:
"He's a tremendous worker. He spends the entire year preparing his body and his mind, and I would go so far as to say some of his emotions and those types of things that we have to put into this job and he has to put into it as a player. He spends a huge chunk of time getting himself prepared and ready to do the things that he wants to do, and he has high expectations and high goals for himself. He knows that it's going to take a tremendous amount of work to continue performing at the level that he wants to play at, and he deserves a lot of credit for that."
Though Dexter Manley might disagree (what was up with that?!?), Brady is making an early claim to his third career MVP award.
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