Tom Brady needs to have better players around him so that he doesn’t have to play hero ball for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, claims Brooke Pryor.

Having had arguably one of the better seasons of his career in 2021, leading the league in touchdowns and passing yards (yes he’s done it before, but he did it at the age of 44), this season has been something of a rude awakening for Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.

Whilst he hasn’t been all that bad, ranking 6th when it comes to yards per game and leading the league in the lowest percentage of passes being thrown for interceptions whilst completing the most passes of any quarterback in the league, the Buccaneers find themselves at 6-6, which is still enough to give them the lead in the NFC South, although that’s more of an indictment on them than it is on Brady and the boys.

But whilst you might want to give some leeway to Brady by accounting for his age, you could make the argument that age isn’t the factor here, it’s the people that are around him that are the problem.

Tom Brady having to deal with a pretty bad bunch

One of the big problems for Brady has been the players he has had to deal with this season. After winning the Super Bowl in 2020, Brady and the Buccaneers had the comfort of knowing that all 22 starters from their win were coming back, but this season it has been far different.

Brady’s favourite target Rob Gronkowski retired during the offseason and after that the Buccaneers were hit with a flurry of injuries that hampered a lot of their preparation for the season and those problems have continued into the regular season as well.

As a result, he’s had to work with some less-than-stellar players at times this year, and whilst he might have been able to make it work earlier in his career, that’s not his forte at his age, even if his overall ability hasn’t been totally impacted.

That was the point ESPN’s Brooke Pryor made on the matter, as she believed that now it was time for the players around Brady to step up to make up for some of the deficiencies that are starting to creep into his game.

Video: Brooke Pyror discusses Tom Brady’s ability this year:

It really now is a case that the tables have turned when it comes to Brady, he was once the man to elevate players above their perceived level, now he has to ask the same of his supporting cast. 

Whether that be for the rest of this year or into 2023, if Brady doesn’t have the right pieces around him, it looks as if his play is just going to keep dropping and dropping, which won’t hurt his overall legacy, but will certainly be a sour note to end his career on.