Tom Brady shares blunt take about current state of the NFL originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
This may surprise you, but Tom Brady has high standards.
Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers are just 2-2 after losing back-to-back games in Weeks 3 and 4. That places them in a tie with 14 other teams that also sit at .500 through four games, including their Week 5 opponent, the Atlanta Falcons.
You could view that massive middle class as a great sign that the NFL is highly competitive. But Brady doesn’t see it that way.
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“I think there’s a lot of bad football from what I watch,” Brady told reporters Wednesday when asked about the current parity in the NFL. “I watch a lot of bad football. Poor quality of football. That’s what I see.”
That’s pretty harsh, Tom.
Brady has a fair point, though: Only eight of the NFL’s 32 teams currently have a winning record, with seven teams at 1-3 (including his former team, the New England Patriots, and Josh McDaniels’ Las Vegas Raiders) and the Houston Texans pulling up the rear at 0-3-1. Seventeen teams are averaging at least 1.5 turnovers per game in 2022, compared to just eight in 2021.
Brady’s own team has room for improvement, as well. The Bucs own the NFL’s second-worst rushing attack and have scored more than 20 points just once in four games.
Those numbers aren’t going to cut it for a player who has won seven Super Bowl titles and 18 division titles in 22 seasons. So, expect the Bucs to raise their level of play over the next few weeks — or deal with a very unhappy Brady.