Recently, former Seattle Seahawks quarterback, Warren Moon, spoke about Tampa Bay newcomer Tom Brady. Moon is well-known because he was still a successful quarterback even in his early 40s.
Later on, his form dwindled with age and he lost his starting quarterback position shortly. All this was after he made the Pro Bowl and spent his final two seasons on the bench for the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, he firmly believes that 42-year old Tom Brady could end up falling into the same cycle.
Speaking to Colin Cowherd, Moon said, “I can see — especially later in the season. You can see this with Drew Brees and some of the other quarterbacks as well. Their arms don’t have the same pop at the end of the season that they had early in the year. That has to do with their age, and that’s something I started to see in my career when I got older. I didn’t have that same pop in my arm. A lot of it has to do with your legs because you’ve just become fatigued over the course of the whole season.”
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Is Tom Brady declining with age?
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Going by the statistics, the 42-year old threw for 4,057 yards. He also recorded 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions during the 2019-20 season. However, his passer rating dipped into the 80s for the first time since 2013, as did his yards per game.
To make matters worse, Tom Brady registered a passer rating of over 100 in just one out of 12 games. In fact, eight of his last 10 games ended up with a completion rate below 56%.
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Moon even observed that Brady’s arm strength is on the decline, though he has a chance to prove Moon wrong in a new climate. In addition to that, he has excellent wide receiver options in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. On the tight end front, Brady can rub shoulders with Rob Gronkowski, Cameron Brate and O.J. Howard.
Interestingly, Moon still believes that Brady can perform well, even with lesser arm strength. He said, “It’s not a huge deterioration to where he can’t throw certain routes, but there will be times when it gets later into the year you’re going to see some of that take its place. He has great talent around him, which is great, and he doesn’t have to do as much on that football team, which will be good for him at this stage of his career.