It appears neither Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees nor Aaron Rodgers will enter the postseason as serious Super Bowl contenders for the first time since 2001. That’s because NFL teams have finally changed their approach to young QBs.
The worst and most accurate observation you can make about Tom Brady right now is that he has the same chance of winning this year’s Super Bowl as Peyton Manning does. Brady’s Bucs might make the playoffs, but only for bookkeeping reasons: Somebody has to win the NFC South—it is, quite literally, in the rulebook. The Bucs are lousy and unworthy of belief, and Brady (who said earlier this year that he sees “a lot of bad football” in the league) surely knows it.