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Tom Brady will not make his NFC Pro Bowl debut as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers star was not one of the quarterbacks named to the all-star roster. Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray and Aaron Rodgers instead were the three NFC quarterbacks who received the honor.
Even if Brady had made the roster, the quarterback would not have actually played as the game was canceled as a response to COVID-19. The NFL will be doing the game virtually using Madden 21 with celebrities playing the game online but the league is still revealing rosters for each conference. Brady already has 14 Pro Bowl appearances, but the quarterback has played in less than half of these games given his nine Super Bowl matchups made him ineligible to participate a week before the big game.
Through 14 games, Brady has thrown for 3,886 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing more than 65 percent of his passes. Brady is on pace to eclipse 4,000 passing yards for the 12th time in his career and fourth straight season but is also approaching his career-high mark of 14 interceptions.
Brady is still putting up numbers but is hard to argue swapping the Bucs quarterback on the roster over the other three quarterbacks. Wilson is having the best season of his career, and Rodgers already has thrown 40 touchdowns challenging his career-high of 45 TDs. Murray is the weakest candidate of the three but is on track to push the Cardinals to their first postseason since 2015.
Arians on Brady: The QB Deserves More Credit
There have been some bumps in the road as Brady is playing for a new team for the first time in two decades. Brady is also doing so without a traditional offseason given the virtual nature of 2020 as a result of the ongoing pandemic. Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians believes Brady deserves more credit for his play this season.
“I don’t know why anyone’s criticizing Tom,” Arians said, per Pro Football Talk. “What he did at the end of the half and to start the second half [against] Minnesota — very, very few teams can score 17 points in a matter of five or six minutes. If we finished the half with 17 points, I don’t [care] how we start. He’s not getting enough credit for what he’s doing.”
The Patriots Missed the Playoffs Without Brady
The Patriots were officially eliminated from postseason contention in their first season without Brady. Meanwhile, the Buccaneers quarterback has all but locked up a playoff spot in Tampa. Brady took the high road when asked about the Patriots’ struggles this season.
“As far as the Patriots go, they have their own thing going and I’ve really been focused on how my play needs to be at quarterback, the execution I need,” Brady noted after the Bucs’ win over the Falcons in Week 15. “They’re not really an opponent of mine. Obviously, I have a lot of friends there, a lot of great relationships, but they’ve been focused on what they need to do, and I’ve been trying to focus on what my job is.”
New England is dealing with much more than just losing Brady as several key players opted out before the season seriously depleting their depth on defense. Brady was inserted into a Buccaneers’ roster that was primed for a postseason run, but the team still had to win the games.
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