There's been times when the quarterback rating stat hasn't been kind to Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, like, say, last year, when it said Ryan Fitzpatrick was playing better than TB12 despite playing worse in almost every major stat category (completions, touchdowns, interceptions, you get the idea). This week, though, ESPN's QBR rankings were a perfect recap of the flying elbow drop that Tom Brady dished out to the Cleveland Browns.
ESPN unveiled their "Top and Bottom 3 QB performances from Week 5 of the NFL", and, much like life in general, nobody was better than Tom Brady.
Rusty after coming back from a four-game suspension? Please. Here's what ESPN's Sharon Katz and Jacob Nitzberg had to say about Brady's triumphant Return of the King air show on Sunday:
"Brady made his season debut with a bang, posting a Total QBR of 96.6, his highest in a game since Week 8 of 2014 (98.6 against the Bears). Brady added 10.4 points to the New England Patriots' scoring margin above what an average quarterback (QBR of 50) would with the same number of plays, the highest such margin by any player in a game this season. QBR data is available back to the start of the 2006 season; it's Brady's fourth-highest such mark in any game."
The duo also pointed out, correctly, that Brady was "efficient" on his deep passes (20+ yards), completing 4 of the 5 long bombs that he threw. Put another way, Brady's deep ball that's supposedly been nonexistent for years now is still just doing Tom Brady things...you poor, silly doubters.
TB12 went 28 for 40 against Cleveland, which makes for a nice, tidy completion percentage of 70%, and racked up a cool 406 yards and three scores. And just to allow him to re-introduce himself, he also unleashed his wheels to pick up a first down, and celebrated accordingly:
Good thing Brady had this game to knock all that rust off and get used to his new receivers and O-line, because as everyone's aware, they're on to Cincinnati. But that flight home was most definitely a happier one this time.
(PS - if you'd like to argue about QBR being a completely arbitrary and silly stat, feel free to do so in the comments)