Romo studying Brady

by Mainiac on Aug 4, 2008 9:43 AM EDT

In Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback he talks a bit with Tony Romo, but the interesting thing is that Romo is trying to make his style match Brady's:

Now Romo was up showing me.

"Before,'' he said, "I'd drop back seven and I'd be looking, looking, looking ... ''

He looked left, center and right in the room, bouncing on his feet, moving forward as he did it, ending up about three yards ahead in this imaginary pocket, throwing to an imaginary receiver on the right.

"I've moved way up. See? I better throw it now or the pocket's gonna collapse on me," he said. "What I was doing was creating pressure where there should be none. When I watched film, I wanted to change that.''

"To get out of the traffic?'' I said.

"Yeah,'' he said. "And as I watched film of other quarterbacks, I noticed one, Tom Brady, who didn't do it. As he looked 1-2-3-4, boom-boom-boom, I saw his feet. They weren't coming forward. He was seeing his receivers though.''

Now he dropped back, imitating the stay-at-home Brady."

Brady's like, back-back-back, stay, look, stay, look, boom! Complete. That's what I want to be doing.

Now, I'm no Cowboys fan so I'd rather not see Romo improve, but it's certainly interesting to see how much respect Romo gives our boy Tom.

The views expressed in these FanPosts are not necessarily those of the writers or SBNation.

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Study others

I would say any good player studies others to gain more knowledge and better themselves. It’s the sort of self evaluation and willingness to accept criticism that sets them apart.

That being said, Brady was one of the most successful QBs in 2007. Anyone who doesn’t pay attention as to why he was successful is missing the boat.

Blogger at SBNation's New England Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit

by MaPatsFan on Aug 4, 2008 11:14 AM EDT reply actions

I actually considered breaking this out into a larger post—one of Brady’s hallmarks has been his tireless attention to detail. Certainly it’s one thing that he an BB have in common, but it goes way back before he was with the Pats.

It put me in mind of the foot-speed drill he worked in high-school, and the constant throwing-motion analysis that he goes through with his old QB coach on a nearly weekly basis. Attention to detail—and nothing is too small.

Romo’s right, too. With an average of 3 seconds to throw, he gives up a lot by giving up three yards with happy feet. Of course, having the luxury to set up camp in the backfield is certainly one way to keep the jitters down. Bu that’s not something the QB can control.

This level of positional detail has always been something that’s both fascinated and confounded me—I know more than the average fan about the O-Line from having played it under a really good coach. But the same level of detail can be brought to bear on every single position on the field. I think it’s why gridiron can be such a rewarding sport to follow.

As Mr. Sloan always says, there is no "I" in team, but there is an "I" in pie. And there's an "I" in meat pie. Anagram of meat is team... I don't know what he's talking about. --Shaun of the Dead

by JohnHannahRules on Aug 4, 2008 4:33 PM EDT reply actions

Just my opinion,

Romo can watch all the film of Tom he wants to, but he will never be able to duplicate it. He just doesn’t have the skills.

by Ironman63 on Aug 5, 2008 6:13 PM EDT reply actions

Huh!

Gee, I thought Brady was too distracted by Gisele and all of his jet-setting to be able to play football anymore. Maybe the media will grant that he might possibly have one more season in him?

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Aug 6, 2008 12:30 PM EDT reply actions