One former Buccaneers quarterback isn’t mincing words in his assessment of Tom Brady.
Shaun King who played under center for Tampa Bay from 1999-2003, isn’t taking anything away from what Brady accomplished. He just believes one of the all-time greats has nothing left to give at 45.
“Let’s be honest, man,” King told Compare.bet. “Why does everybody beat around the bush? Tom Brady is the most accomplished quarterback at the professional level we’ve ever seen, and nobody in modern football is getting to 10 Super Bowls, and they’re definitely not winning seven. In spite of that, you still should be honest about what he is now. He’s a shell of himself. Especially when he’s encountered with pressure.”
Brady, now an unrestricted free agent, is coming off the first losing season of his career, though 8-9 was good enough for the Buccaneers to win the AFC South. Tampa Bay was bounced from the playoffs by the Cowboys in the wild-card round.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion still put up solid numbers in 2022, completing 66.8 percent of a league-leading 733 passes for 4,694 yards, 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions with a QB rating of 90.7.
This still didn’t impress King as he feels Brady no longer passes the eye test overall.
“Yeah, in spurts he can still make some throws, and, yeah, every second or third game he can have a fourth quarter that makes you remember how great he was,” King said. “But from start to finish, he’s not the same player. Age is undefeated. If you watch Tom Brady play, when he is under pressure and duress, he is completely out of whack. That’s just the reality of it.”
Brady, who also went through a very public divorce from Giselle Bundchen this year, is now free to sign with whatever team he wants if he opts to continue playing. The feeling around his friends, Bucs teammates and experts is that he is done with Tampa Bay, especially after the firing of offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. There are plenty of teams expected to be highly interested in Brady, including the Raiders, Dolphins, and a potential Patriots reunion as New England hired Bill O’Brien as their new offensive coordinator on Tuesday.
King just wants teams to be clear about what they would be signing up for with Brady.
“It happens, man. You get old,” he said. “You step off the sidewalk and you feel like you jumped off a 10-story building. It happens to everybody. It’s just a part of getting old.”
Brady, who could also opt to cash-in his 10-year, $375 million contract to join the Fox Sports broadcast booth, didn’t sound like he is close to making up his mind on his next move.
If I knew what I was going to f–king do, I’d have already f–king done it,” Brady said on his Sirius XM “Let’s Go!” podcast on Monday. “I’m taking it a day at a time.”