Tom Brady is 'not the same QB he was three or four years ago,' Warren Moon says
Moon doubts Brady's arm strength, but still believes he'll have success in Tampa
Warren Moon was one of the few starting quarterbacks to have success in his 40s, making a Pro Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks at age 41. If there are any quarterbacks that know how to play at a high level in their 40s, it's Moon. At great as Moon was in his Hall of Fame career, his physical gifts diminished as he entered his 40s. Moon lost his starting quarterback job just one season after making the Pro Bowl, spending his final two seasons as a backup with the Kansas City Chiefs, retiring from the league at 44. Father Time eventually caught up to Moon, and he thinks it is catching up to Brady too.
"I can see — especially later in the season, and 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," Moon said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, via Chris Mason of MassLive.com. "That has to do with their age, and that's something I started to see in my career when I got older, that 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."
Brady threw for 4,057 yards, 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions last season, but his passer rating (88.0) was in the 80s for the first time since 2013 and his yards per game (253.6) was his lowest since 2010 (243.8). Brady had just one game with a passer rating over 100 in his last 12 games (including the postseason) and had eight games under a 56% completion rate in his last 10 games. His yards per attempt of 6.6 was the lowest since 2002 (6.3) and the yards per competition of 10.9 is his lowest in a full season since 2002. The 60.8% completion rate is Brady's lowest since 2013 (60.5).
Moon has a point regarding Brady's diminished arm strength, but Brady can prove him wrong throwing in the warm weather in Tampa, along with top wide receiver options in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. He also has Rob Gronkowski, Cameron Brate and O.J. Howard as his tight ends.
Moon has the second-most passing yards (7,148) after turning 40 and is tied with Brett Favre for the second-most passing touchdowns (44). Only Brady is ahead of him in both categories. His six game-winning drives are the most for a quarterback after turning 40.
While Brady is rewriting the record books for quarterbacks over 40, Moon still believes he'll be successful in Tampa, even with the diminished arm strength.
"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," Moon said. "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.
"So I still think he's gonna have success because of those reasons, but he's not the same quarterback he was three or four years ago."
















