Tom Brady is not limiting his thoughts and analysis on the current NFL strictly to his Sunday broadcasting gigs for Fox. He’s handing out flowers and congratulations during the week too, and Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen is the latest to receive his due from the GOAT.
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Allen has been a perennial runner-up so far in his NFL career. He’s been one of the best players in football every season since 2020, and his Bills have been top contenders year in and year out as well. But neither the player nor the team has been able to grab up any hardware because of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, who always seem to beat them when it matters.
Buffalo is 0-3 against the Chiefs in the postseason, with all three coming in the last four years. However, Allen has had success against the Chiefs in the regular season, most recently in a momentous 30-21 win last Sunday. Allen displayed all the things that made him great in that game: his strong arm, his improved decision-making, his strength, and his speed as a runner.
While he’s beaten them in the regular season before, this one felt different. It was K.C.’s first loss of the season, and it was just the fifth time Mahomes has lost by more than eight points. Yeah, you read that right.
But this is about Allen, not Mahomes.
Brady came on the Let’s Go podcast this week to talk football, and he couldn’t help but gush about Allen when asked about the quarterback’s recent maturation:
“[He’s] making good quality decisions. Managing the game. Not putting your team at risk on every single play… It’s like, one good play, one bad play, one good play, one bad play. And everyone’s like ‘oh, I love the physical potential of this.’ And I’m like ‘well, I don’t like the fact that every time he does something well, four plays later he does something that’s not good.’ And that’s too hard to overcome.”
The seven-time Super Bowl champ didn’t hone in on Allen’s oft-celebrated physical abilities. He focused more on how Allen’s Jekyll-and-Hyde playing style hurts his team. No matter how many amazing feats Allen achieved, something negative almost always followed soon after. Could that be behind him now?
Tom Brady says consistency is key for great QBs
As can happen when you’re such an expert on a topic, Tom Brady’s praise of Josh Allen quickly morphed into a more general assessment of what it takes to be a great QB in the NFL. If anyone knows the secrets and/or answers to be the best QB you can be, it’s TB12.
After talking about Allen, Brady doubled down on the importance of consistency and mistake-free football for QBs in general.
“If you’re a great player, it’s your ability to make good and great plays consistently well over the course of a game. Everybody in the NFL makes plays, everybody can make a great play, can run fast, can jump high, can catch the ball, can make tackles. It’s how often can you do it? To me, that’s what determines how great you are, or how good you are, or how average you are. If it’s really great, and really bad, you’re average. But if it’s really great, and good, or great, great, great, great, well then you’re a great player.”
He went on to say that while great players have to be consistent in their performance and work ethic on game day, that’s just as important during the week at the practice facility.
“Everybody can make great plays, can you be a great player over time, every day, not just on the game field, but on the practice environment as well. This is where you gain the trust of everybody. That’s what the team really needs to count on.”
Brady sounded much more comfortable shooting the breeze about football with the show’s eclectic group of hosts — sportscaster Jim Gray, Brady’s former coach Bill Belichick, Las Vegas Raiders edge Maxx Crosby, and sportswriter Peter King — than he does with Kevin Burkhardt in the Fox booth on Sundays.
Allen and the Bills will look to overtake the Chiefs as the top seed in the AFC soon. But, they will have to wait until Week 13, as they are on their bye in Week 12.
