Tom Brady departs: Sunrise coming to three AFC East teams. And sunset for the fourth
Everything changed in the AFC East on Tuesday.
Wait, not everything.
Bill Belichick is still so overbearing and exhausting that even the greatest player to ever play for him wanted to leave.
Tom Brady, owner of six Super Bowl rings, announced his departure from the New England Patriots ... And by extension his departure from the division the quarterback dominated for nearly two decades.
Brady is gone from the division that he won the last 16 times he tried. The Patriots, division winners in 16 of the past 17 years, including 11 in a row, had a break in that stirring streak in 2008 when the Miami Dolphins won the division.
That’s the year Brady missed the season with a knee injury.
So the greatest of all time (some in Buffalo, Miami and New York would call him the something else) is gone now and he’ll likely announce his move elsewhere on Wednesday when the NFL league year is set to begin.
Tampa Bay will be his next landing spot, according to multiple reports.
So, yes, everything is going to be different.
In New England, my guess is the difference will show in the results. Belichick will still be the same unmitigated pompous oaf he’s been the past 20 years, except now he’s going to be that guy after many more losses than he typically experiences.
Belichick isn’t being blamed for driving Brady from the northeast. But that’s just public relations. Because he definitely is responsible for not doing the work to keep Brady from leaving -- work Brady apparently longed to witness the past few years but never did.
The Patriots have inexperienced Jarrett Stidham as their quarterback right now. And they may go quarterback shopping to get more help because (ominous music now) overbearing Belichick always has a plan for every eventuality.
(How’d that planning work against the Wildcat or the Miami Miracle, by the way?)
Anyway, what we’ll soon learn is whether New England’s inexorable freight train of a dynasty of the two decades was the result of a great mind on their sideline ... or a great quarterback in the huddle.
I firmly believe it was more the latter than the former.
And now a statistic about the former:
Belichick’s head coaching record with Brady as his starter is 219-64 -- a .773 winning percentage.
Belichick’s head coaching record without Brady as his starter is 54-63 -- a .461 winning percentage.
So we’ll see if he’s still Don Shula before Dan Marino.
Or more like Dave Wannstedt after Dan Marino.
The cities in the AFC East not named Boston know what Beantown is going through now. We get it. We’ve been there.
Miami felt it after Marino was forced out. Buffalo felt it after Jim Kelly retired. New York felt it after Joe Namath was traded.
It stings.
And unless Belichick has a Steve Young waiting in the wings to replace his latter day Joe Montana, the pain is going to last for the new Patriots.
Fans around the AFC East love that. And their teams are preparing for it.
In Buffalo, the Bills are already looking like the division’s best team. They went to the playoffs for the second time in three years in 2019 and have made moves during free agency -- including trading for receiver Stefon Diggs -- that suggest they feel now is their time.
In New York, the Jets are lifted by the idea Sam Darnold is about to become the division’s best quarterback. By all accounts, he “got it” near the end of last season under new coach Adam Gase.
The Jets were 6-2 in their final eight games and this offseason are trying to actually put an offensive line in front of Darnold. So they believe themselves a team with a ways to go, but with a franchise quarterback to take them there.
In Miami, well, you know the story.
The Dolphins put you through a lot of pain last season. And now they’re trying to deliver the resulting gain they promised.
The club has agreed to contract terms with eight free agents in less than 48 hours and the work still isn’t complete.
The defense is better with the additions of Byron Jones, Kyle Van Noy and Shaq Lawson. Coach Brian Flores, who already beat Belichick the last time they played, will try to put a versatile defense on the field that will look frustratingly familiar to Belichick the next time they meet.
The Dolphins’ offense, meanwhile, is a work in progress. That side of the ball is going to take a while.
The quarterback the Dolphins draft in the first round of the coming draft may take a minute to be a serious factor. Justin Herbert needs all sorts of technique work and Tua Tagovailoa needs all sorts of physical recovery. So neither is plug-and-play ready.
In the meantime, the Dolphins are going to continue adding to the offensive line and the running back room in the draft. And then, after they add from the 14 draft picks they have this year, they’re coming back with nearly two handfuls of picks next year -- including two first-round and two second-round picks.
So the future is bright in Miami, Buffalo and New York. It looks like the dawn of something for those NFL outposts.
In New England, meanwhile, the sun is setting.
Because everything changed on Tuesday.
