Tom Brady is currently in the middle of the best stretch of his 2018 season. Since coming out of his team’s week 11 bye, the New England Patriots’ quarterback has completed 71 of his 106 pass attempts (67.0%) for 952 yards, six touchdowns and only one interception. Over the last six games, he has again looked like the NFL’s best quarterback — all after “only” looking like one of the best through the first 10 games.
The question if the Brady of 2018 is the same Brady as the one that dominated the league over the past few years — one that won two Super Bowls, two Super Bowl MVPs and one league MVP between 2014 and 2017 — has been a prominently discussed this season. The best of those discussions was published by Bleacher Report’s Tyler Dunne yesterday. Tyler spoke with an eight-man panel about the 41-year old’s performance this season.
The remarks made by one man in particular are noteworthy: Tom House, Brady’s personal quarterback guru of the last seven years and one of only two men (the other being the late Tom Martinez) to work in this role with the future Hall of Famer. According to House, the 18-year veteran is still in peak physical condition — possibly even more so than when he started working with him in 2012.
“I actually think he’s a better quarterback now than 10 years ago,” House told Tyler. “Because in his head, he has 10 years of experience and his body has maintained. He’s as good or better physically as he was 10 years ago. [...] This is my seventh year with him and I haven’t seen any skill diminishing anywhere. He’s the same guy with more experience, more knowledge, and basically he is kind of like a coach unto himself.”
“He has all that experience, all that knowledge and the ability to go out and recall it in competition, and he’s kept his physical tools also,” House continued. Brady’s work ethic has long been documented and is a big reason for his maintained success a starting quarterback in the NFL — one that is still going strong and being motivated despite already having won everything there is to win.
“His expectation level is pretty intense,” House told Tyler about his superstar pupil when speaking about Brady’s preparation and the driving forces behind him still trying to improve his craft. “He loves the game. His passion for football is like other elite athletes that play into their late 30s and early 40s, like Nolan Ryan coming to the ballpark. You just love the game. It’s part of their fabric.”
Despite Brady putting in all the work, House knows that the aging process in unforgiving. However, he also noted that players — in this case Brady — can maintain their level of play deep into their 40s. “Research says there’s no reason you can’t do at 45 what you did at 25 if your process will support it,” House said. “What I’ve seen, and what we’re researching, is that strength usually isn’t the problem. They can maintain strength into their 50s.”
“But flexibility and speed — the nervous system — they need to be addressed a little bit differently,” the mechanics coach continued before noting that he, Brady and the quarterback’s personal body guru, Alex Guerrero, break meticulously break down the five-time Super Bowl winner. Nerves, muscles and connective tissue get tracked in order to analyze Brady’s body movements and work on them.
Make sure to check Tyler’s story about Brady out — it is worth your click.