Deflategate — remember that? — is over. Tom Brady is back. Does the rest of the NFL stand a chance?
The first four weeks of the New England Patriots’ season were about the brilliant maneuverings of coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who somehow devised ways to win twice with Jimmy Garoppolo filling in for the suspended Brady at quarterback and once more with rookie Jacoby Brissett filling in for the fill-in after Garoppolo got hurt.
But now the mixing and matching and patching are over. There is no more compensating to be done. Brady rejoined the Patriots on Monday after his four-game suspension ended, and his chase for a fifth Super Bowl triumph in tandem with Belichick begins with today’s game at Cleveland.
“I think the down time was strange for him,” former Patriots fullback Heath Evans said last week. “I don’t think being back will be strange for him. I’m sure he was ready to go at 12:01 (a.m. Monday). The hard part is over and done with. This part is what they’ve done for 17 years.”
McDaniels said he thinks that Brady returned to the team in good physical condition and prepared to thrive, as always.
“I didn’t notice any difference,” he said in a conference call with reporters early last week. “It was four weeks and it felt like it went fast, and Tommy is ready to go and looks ready to go.”
Brady’s return perhaps comes at a good time for the NFL, which has suffered through an opening-month drop in television ratings in a season that began, maybe coincidentally or maybe not, with Brady shelved and his longtime quarterbacking rival, Peyton Manning, retired. It also comes at a good time for the Patriots, who were shut out last Sunday at home in a 16-0 defeat to the Buffalo Bills.
Even so, it’s difficult to imagine that the Patriots could have emerged from Brady’s suspension in any better shape. They went 3-1. They know much more about what they have in young quarterbacks Garoppolo and Brissett, just in case they ever find themselves without Brady again in the not-too-distant future. Brady returns rested and fresh, needing to endure only a dozen regular season games before getting to the games that truly matter in the postseason.
There could be some rust to be knocked off his game. But does anyone expect that to take long?
“There will be a transition,” Evans, an analyst for the NFL Network, said in a phone interview. “I just don’t know if we’ll see it out in the public. They’ll feel it in the building, in the meeting room. The offense will be different. I can’t even draw up all the scenarios that Josh and Bill will have available to them. They’ll adjust internally. I imagine they’ll hit the ground running.”
Brady and the Patriots might not have to do too much heavy lifting today against the winless Browns. But when things become difficult, Brady will have a talented and multi-faceted offense at his disposal.
“I hope there is an adjustment period,” Browns coach Hue Jackson said in a conference call. “I wouldn’t think there will be for him. He’s well prepared. He understands how to play this game. … This is Tom Brady we’re talking about.”
Tailback LeGarrette Blount is the NFL’s third-leading rusher. Wide receiver Chris Hogan has demonstrated that he can be an effective complement to Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola.
Tight end Martellus Bennett leads the team in receiving yards and ranks second in catches. The Patriots have demonstrated in the past that they know how to take full advantage of having two capable pass-catching tight ends. Rob Gronkowski has been slowed by a hamstring injury and has only one catch this season, leading him to joke Wednesday that he is being harassed by those who drafted him in fantasy leagues.
Is this the beginning of a Deflategate revenge tour for Brady and the Patriots? They had the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history in 2007 in the aftermath of the Spygate scandal, missing out on a greatest-team-ever 19-0 season only because of a stunning Super Bowl upset at the hands of the New York Giants.
With Brady’s Deflategate decision kept on hold — temporarily, as it turned out — last season by a federal judge’s ruling, the Patriots won their first 10 games in what looked like a repeat performance. But problems along the offensive line and injuries to key members of Brady’s supporting cast on offense led to a 2-4 finish to the regular season that cost the Patriots the top seed in the playoffs. They lost at Denver in the AFC title game.
So now they try again, with Brady’s championship chances beginning to dwindle at age 39. The post-Manning Broncos are imposing again. The Pittsburgh Steelers appear formidable, especially now that running back Le’Veon Bell has returned from his three-game suspension. The Baltimore Ravens are off to a good start. But Evans said he believes that the participants in last season’s AFC championship game remain in the lead in the race for conference supremacy this season.
“If you’re looking at everything across the board,” Evans said, “I think it’s the Broncos and Patriots.”