Week 21 QB projections   •  NE Stats

QB Tom Brady, New England Patriots

HT: 6-4, WT: 210, Born: 8-3-1977, College: Michigan, Drafted: Round 6

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Stats and Week 21 Projection

WK	OPP	RES	CMP	ATT	PYD	Y/A	PTD	INT	RSH	YD	Y/R	TD	FPT
19	vs DEN	W, 45-10	26	34	363	10.7	6	1	3	8	2.7	0	47
20	vs BAL	W, 23-20	22	36	239	6.6	0	2	6	2	0.3	1	14
SEASON TOTAL			401	611	5235	8.6	39	12	43	109	2.5	3	462
21	at NYG	PROJ	24	37	294	7.9	2.1	1	2	5	2.5	0.1	24

Week 21 Injury Status and Other News

No official injury reports have been released yet

[Fri Feb 3, 4:42 PM] Tom Brady Supermodel Gisele Bundchen reportedly sent an e-mail asking friends and family to pray for Brady prior to Super Bowl XLVI. "My sweet friends and family," the e-mail began. "This Sunday will be a really important day in my husband's life. He and his team worked so hard to get to this point and now they need us more than ever to send them positive energy so they can fulfill their dream of winning this Super Bowl ... So I kindly ask all of you to join me on this positive chain and pray for him, so he can feel confident, healthy and strong. Envision him happy and fulfilled experiencing with his team a victory this Sunday."

[Wed Feb 1, 6:01 PM] Tom Brady privately told owner Robert Kraft in the locker room following the AFC Championship Game that he will play better in Super Bowl XLVI. Brady was openly critical of his performance. "I'm always trying to play better. Every player on this team is trying to play better every week," Brady said. "I'm glad we won that game, glad we're sitting in this position now. I think a lot of guys played really well and that's what it is going to take again this week. I always have private conversations with Mr. Kraft, but they're supposed to be private. I guess they're not."

Brady said Wednesday, Feb. 1, he regretted telling a national television audience that he "sucked" following the team's AFC Championship Game victory. "I wish I didn't say it because I didn't want to take away from what the team had accomplished, and certainly we had accomplished a lot to get to this point in this season, to beat a very good team in the AFC championship, to fight back like we did," Brady said. "We were down in that game. I think we proved how we're a pretty mentally tough team."

Week 21 Matchup Info

at New York Giants - Detailed analysis coming soon.

Game Summaries

Week 1 at MIA - Shortly after a report appears saying Tom Brady had never even thrown for the 422 yards that Cam Newton threw for this past weekend, low and behold the champion shatters that mark by throwing for 517 yards, a new personal record. That is not a misprint in case you missed the game. Footballguys could fill pages and pages of accolades for Tom Brady but here are some of the highlights from last night. 1st play of the game on offense for the Pats, Miami had just scored on an opening drive lasting 7:30 minutes and what does Brady do? He barks a hard count and draws the Miami defense offsides. That set the tone for the game and was Brady's way of saying that he was going to dictate the game not Miami; that he was in charge of the outcome and not the drive that just happened, just forget about it because I'm Tom Brady and I'm in charge out here. Like a surgeon from the Cleveland Clinic he took the Miami Dolphins secondary apart on an operation table known as the gridiron. Brady hit all of his passes on the first two drives of the game going 8 for 8 and leading New England to a 14-7 lead. When Miami pulled close in the 2nd half Brady started connecting with his wideouts after tearing Miami apart thru the middle with his TEs in the 1st half. We'll go over the 99 yard touchdown when we highlight Welker but everything Brady wanted to do he was able to do. The intensity he brings not just on the field but also the huddle and sidelines is unmatched in the NFL. Brady was able to find Gronkowski early and then Hernandez a lot more in the 2nd half. Brady helped the Patriots rack up over 620 yards of offense, in fact Coach Sparano said after the game the Patriots had 700 yards of offense; he wsn't far off. You know Brady can hit just about every pass play that you can draw up but it's all the other things he brings that separates him form the rest of the league.

Week 2 vs SD - After two weeks, Brady is well on his way towards a career year. He picked the Chargers apart with surgical precision, proving that last week's offensive fireworks show was simply the beginning. For the most part, Brady had loads of time to throw all game long. And with that time, he was able to constantly deliver perfect touch to find holes in the defense wherever they existed. In the first half, the Chargers typically rushed just three at a time -- and Brady absolutely had his way with them. He knows exactly what to do at all times when he doesn't have to face a dynamic pass rush, and it was clear the Chargers couldn't stop him using that approach. For the most part, he didn't even really look deep downfield. The vast majority of his damage was done on the underneath stuff, because that's what the Chargers were giving them. His touchdown passes were each better throws than the one that preceded it. The first was a high strike to TE Aaron Hernandez, who did make a great effort to come down with it. He then twice found his other TE, Rob Gronkowski. The first was just a perfect strike over the middle, and the second was stuck in an extremely tight spot that didn't leave much margin for error. About his only semi-negative moment was when he threw a pass that bounced around a bit and was nearly picked off. Every quarterback in the league has about 3-4 of those per game, so it really wasn't a big deal at all and it's a stretch just to call it a negative. Brady did have a very scary moment in the third quarter when he somehow avoided serious injury. He was hit below the knee and his leg began to buckle sideways, which had to cause a collective gasp in New England. But despite the freaky-looking nature of the hit Brady stood up with absolutely zero sign of injury. The league is looking into whether Brady is now a cyborg.

Week 3 at BUF - It started out like a typical game for Brady against the Bills, but this one had a twist ending. Facing little pressure up front, Brady carved up the Bills secondary with ease and finished with 387 yards and 4 TD passes. What made this game different, however, were the 4 interceptions he threw. Several of them were tipped, including the most critical play which came in fourth quarter. The pass deflected off the face mask of Marcell Dareus and landed right in the hands of CB Drayton Florence, who returned the ball 27 yards for a defensive touchdown that gave the Bills their first lead of the game. Brady led the Pats down the field for a tying touchdown on a 4th down pass to Wes Welker, but the Bills were able to run out the clock and kick a winning field goal as time expired. Brady was the victim of some unlucky bounces, but generally ran the offense like a well-oiled machine.

Week 4 at OAK - Brady led his team to a bounce back win in a hostile environment. Brady had a couple drives stall out because of sacks but other than that the Patriots offense was quite productive as a unit.  The offensive line played really well today and for the most part kept Brady upright. But at the same time the Raiders do have a decent front seven and did pressure Brady on a lot of his incomplete passes.  Brady seems to still have eyes for Wes Welker (40 catches in only 4 games this year), and Welker had almost 50% of the team's total targets (14/30) in this game.   The next highest targeted receiver was TE Rob Gronkowski who had 5 targets and could of had a much bigger day than his one catch performance. Gronkowski got deep several times, and while they could not connect Brady was very close on two of the deep targets in the red zone. But today was a much more balanced attack from the Patriots as they ran the ball 30 times and passed the ball 30 times. Therefore, Brady was not asked to throw for 400+ yards again but not to worry as he still looked sharp and just missed on several other plays. One could tell that New England enjoyed out-rushing the most dangerous rushing attack in the league 183 to 160. Brady also did a great job of moving in the pocket when the pocket would breakdown he would step up and often find the open man.

Week 5 vs NYJ - t says something that a 321 yard, 1 touchdown, 1 interception day by Tom Brady is almost underperforming. That's what happens when you set your own bar so high. Kidding aside, this was another classic Brady performance, as the Pro Bowl quarterback once again showed poise and great vision as he tore much of the Jets' secondary up. His one interception wasn't even on him--Brady threw the ball right into tight end Aaron Hernandez's hands but he couldn't hold onto it and the ball popped up and to Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie. Instead of an interception, that should have been a touchdown. A better example of Brady's day was a 73 yard completion to Wes Welker. Brady had all kinds of time in the pocket as he waited for Welker to slip behind the secondary, hitting Welker in stride with a perfect over the shoulder throw for a hug completion. Brady had another outstanding day and he appears to continue to be at the top of his game. Brady's touchdown to Deion Branch tied him for 8th place in the All Time list with 275 career touchdowns and it was his 21st straight regular season game with a touchdown pass, which extends his Patriot record.

Week 6 vs DAL - Tom Brady once again didn't look as sharp as he did in 2010's campaign against the Cowboys. He threw two interceptions that came when he was under pressure and attempting to make a difficult throw in to coverage. At the same time, he came through when it mattered in engineering a final scoring drive that sealed the Patriots victory in a closely contested game. Brady spent much of the day passing out of the shotgun or running play-action from under center. The Patriots used a variety of stacked formations where three and even four receivers were lined up together. That said, Brady didn't try to get too fancy, choosing to make the safe pass underneath to Wes Welker or his tight ends instead of making lots of throws downfield. Brady primarily looked for Wes Welker on drag routes and, in the likely event that Welker was covered, he found whichever of his two tight ends was in single-coverage outside of the hash marks. Brady's best throw of the day came on the game-winning touchdown. On the play, Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski were both lined up on the left side. The Cowboys double-teamed Gronkowski. Hernandez cut to the back middle of the end zone, and with Danny Woodhead releasing from the backfield to the front middle of the end zone, Hernandez was left in single coverage. Brady rifled a throw away from the outside defender which Hernandez hauled in for the game's deciding points.

Week 8 at PIT - This was one of Brady's "quietest" games in a long time as the Pittsburgh offense was actually its best defense. New England only possessed the ball for 20 minutes in this game. They started each half with three-and-outs as Pittsburgh forced Brady to try to squeeze the ball in tight places. New England rarely even thought of running on 3rd-and-2, which made Brady's job a bit more difficult. He was pressured somewhat regularly by multiple Pittsburgh linebackers and linemen, all while the defensive backs were able to jam New England's wideouts. Pittsburgh used the New York Jets' blueprint of pressure, tight coverage, and the knowledge that New England has no receivers capable of taking the top off the defense . Brady has an elite slot receiver and elite tight ends, but I'm sure deep down, he'd downgrade from elite to average at those positions for a viable deep threat. The Pittsburgh pressure showed multiple times that Brady is not a good passer on the move. One time in particular, he stepped up in the pocket and had no defenders near him. He threw a deep ball while on the move in a forward direction, and the ball wobbled and hung up, causing his receiver to stop and the Pittsburgh defensive back (Ike Taylor) to knock it away. Brady will still have his way with less talented defenses who can't pressure him and execute tight, physical press coverage, but there's a slight blueprint developing on how to hold this team down.

Week 9 vs NYG - Tom Brady had a strange first half and looked to be extremely frustrated by the Giants defense. Brady threw two first half interceptions on passes that shouldn't have been attempted. Brady attempted to find his WR on a slant but threw into a sea of NYG hands which led to a tipped ball which was picked off. Later in the game, Brady was forcing the ball to TE Gronkowski and threw slightly behind him, which allowed S Grant to tip the ball towards him and make another pick for his team. Brady also had a third turnover as he was strip sacked in the pocket as the NYG front 7 got to him. Despite these mistakes, Brady went on to have a decent fantasy day. Brady did not allow the pressure to get to him after this as he made quick decisions and was attacking the Giants over the middle where they are most vulnerable. Brady relied heavily on WR Welker to get open. He was able to find Welker on many option routes over the middle and to the outside of the field as the Giants could not cover him one on one for long. Brady led a touchdown drive off a NYG turnover and found TE Hernandez on an out route near the goal line which Hernandez took and powered his way over the line. Brady then had to lead another long drive that required a touchdown and almost solely relied on Gronkowski to get the job done in the red zone. Brady could not connect with Gronkowski on 2nd or 3rd down but was able to get the right match up he wanted and fired the ball down the middle to take the lead. Brady had many turnovers and also missed some open receivers with passes that were too low or just not in stride which the Giants more than took advantage of.

Week 10 at NYJ - For a large portion of the first half, Brady struggled with accuracy and timing. Many of his throws seemed to be just a hair off target and a few sailed on him. When Brady seemed to be most effective was when the Patriots picked up the tempo and went no-huddle in the second half. The no-huddle prevented the Jets from subbing in fresh players and they appeared to quickly get tired while Brady took advantage of it with short passes supplemented with a healthy dose of running. Brady and the offense also managed to confuse the Jets defense further with some bunched formations. Once again, Brady was able to take advantage of the confusion for several big gains even when he was struggling overall. Something does seem a little off with Brady recently but he usually overcomes whatever struggles he has and moves the chains. One of his best throws was Chad Ochocinoc early in the game. The Patriots used one of the bunched formantions which seemed so often to confuse the Jets. Brady saw that Jets CB Donald Strickland was massively out of position, and that CB Darrelle Revis was having to move him and was also out of position because of it. Brady quickly snapped the ball and hit a wide open Ochocinco for a massive gain. It's that kind of recognition and quick thinking which makes Brady one of the game's best even when he struggles.

Week 11 vs KC - Brady was plagued by dropped passes and terrible protection early on, but for his part he kept plugging away and in the end turned in a slightly better than pedestrian performance. The first quarter was bad, and nearly disastrous. Brady had two passes dropped, fluttered a ball over the middle off his back foot, and had a miscommunication with Aaron Hernandez that cost his team a TD. Hernandez ran a double move and broke wide open in the secondary but Brady threw the ball to the sideline and missed him by a good ten yards. These trends continued in the second quarter as Brady continued to be pressured, even fumbling after one particularly hard hit. He wasn't the only one that couldn't hold on to the ball, as his receivers dropped 2 more passes. However, he finally found a wide open Rob Gronkowski 20 yards down field and Gronkowski beat a defender and tight roped his way down the right sideline for a score. This was obviously a blown coverage and probably one of Brady's easiest TD passes of the year. Gronkowski seemed to be the only one who had a good rhythm with Brady though as Wes Welker was completely uninvolved, Deion Branch was having hamstring issues, and Aaron Hernandez dropped another pass (this one in the end zone) before the half. Brady threw a ball high of Gronkowski's hands in the 3rd quarter that could have been a pick had any Chiefs defender been behind him. Later in the drive, Brady went back to Gronkowski, this time out of the backfield, and the big TE did all the work, breaking 2 tackles and diving in for his second TD. Brady finally connected with Welker in the 4th quarter and lost a trash time TD to Hernandez because of a procedure penalty. Other than that he was pretty much on cruise control handing the ball off the rest of the night.

Week 12 at PHI - This performance was vintage Brady. He spread the ball out effectively, hitting five different receivers and showing his trademark poise and accuracy all day. The Patriots ran the ball as many times as they threw it and that seemed to knock the Eagles' defense off-balance. Brady had no problem slicing the secondary apart. A team can take its mental lead from its quarterback and when New England fell behind early, Brady showed poise, leading the offense to scores on five out of next six possessions beginning with a 70 yard drive. Several times in the first half, Brady led the offense with a no-huddle look which certainly seemed to keep the defense off guard. Brady was most effective between the numbers, hitting 20 of 23 attempts and a pair of touchdowns in the middle of the field, his biggest beneficiary of course being Wes Welker.

Week 13 vs IND - Brady certainly wasn't as on target as we've seen him in the past but in the no huddle offense he was absolutely unstoppable. Brady completed 12/14 passes for 140 yards in the two drives bracketing halftime in a stretch that pretty much sealed the game. The Colts were giving him room short and Brady took advantage with numerous throws to Wes Welker under the coverage. The patience he showed in marching the Pats downfield seemingly without even considering looking deep was impressive. Brady's two TDs went to Rob Gronkowski who was wide open on both plays. The first wasn't quite as simple as Brady had to fit the throw between two linebackers underneath the route, but both were far too easy for the Pats duo. It seemed that Brady had a third TD to Gronkowski later in the game, but it was ruled a lateral and the tight end was credited with a rushing TD. In the 4th quarter, Brady was not his normal self, missing Deion Branch badly and then missing a short throw to Welker. In fact, there was really just about a 15 minute stretch that the Pats offense seemed focused, but they scored enough points during that stretch to hold off the hapless Colts.

Week 14 at WAS - Brady made a nice pre-snap read to get Hernandez in a good matchup and then found him for a good completion on the Patriots' 1st play, but then threw 3 straight erratic incompletions. Brady didn't look like himself in the first half, missing a number of receivers very badly, and collecting most of his first-half yardage on 2 big plays where TE Rob Gronkowski picked up most of the yardage after the catch. The Redskins were getting good pressure early on Brady, both with their base 3-and 4-man rush and with blitzes. He does such a good job, though, of dealing with that pressure and finding open receivers, that it was just a matter of time until Brady would eventually settle in and make his trademark throws. One of his best moments was when he avoided the rush, moved around in the pocket, stepped up, and delivered a strike to WR Wes Welker on the run. Welker would do the rest beating CB DeAngelo Hall for the go ahead TD. Brady made one more uncharacteristic mistake, though, late in the 4th quarter when he turned the ball over inside the 10 yard line. He was looking for WR Tiquan Underwood in the back of the end zone on 3rd down, but the route was undercut by CB Josh Wilson, who made the interception. The turnover gave the Redskins life as the Patriots not only failed to score the TD, but had an easy FG opportunity wiped out, prompting a fued on the sideline that HC Bill Belichick had to break up. The defense bailed Brady out, though, with an interception of their own to seal the win on Washington's final possession.

Week 15 at DEN - Brady was the benefactor of some amazing YAC totals in this game and did an excellent job of taking what the Broncos were giving him. He connected repeatedly with Aaron Hernandez on short crossing routes and then watched as the tight end turned them into big gains. The first of these came on the first drive as Hernandez picked up 46 yards. Two plays later Brady didn't need any YAC as he found Chad Ochocinco streaking down the left side line wide open for the touchdown. It was a great route from Ochocinco and perfectly thrown ball from Brady. On the next drive Brady was fortunate to avoid an INT when he overshot Rob Gronkowski over the middle. The ball bounced harmlessly off the Broncos DB's face mask for an incompletion. He just overthrew Tiquan Underwood streaking down the right sideline later in the drive. On the next drive Brady had a TD pass called back when Wes Welker was ruled down on a diving catch at the 1 yard line. 2 plays later he found Hernandez wide open in the back of the end zone for the score. Brady had Hernandez open again in the end zone on the next possession but bounced the throw and the Pats had to settle for a FG. On 4th and 1 towards the end of the quarter, Brady again found Hernandez open, this time in the flats. Hernandez turned the short pass into a 25 yard gain and set up a 1 yard plunge from Brady on a QB sneak for 6. After an uneventful first drive of the second half, the Pats marched in for another TD, keyed by a 21 yard dump off to BenJarvus Green Ellis. The Pats final TD drive of the game included a pair of TE crosses that went for 38 yards (Gronkowski) and 22 yard (Hernandez). Brady was denied on back-to-back QB sneaks before handing the ball off for the final score of the game. Brady was certainly fortunate to have so many yards padded on by his TEs after the catch but it was really a brilliant performance showing the patience to keep throwing underneath and letting the talent around him do what they do best.

Week 16 vs MIA - Like so many NFL Quarterbacks, Tom Brady showed he is not immune to looking human when you can get pressure on him. The 1st half of this football game, Tom Brady was under a lot of pressure and was being sacked and hurried a lot early in the football game. The Patriots first 4 drives of the day all ended up in a punt as they could not convert 1st downs and Miami was making life miserable for Brady early in the game. The 2nd half was completely different as Brady was back to his old tricks and taking everything the defense was willing to give him. His pass protection picked up some and suddenly it was a different game. He made an incredible throw with 2 Miami defenders in his face to find Branch in the back of the end zone. Brady showed tremendous leadership as always. That said he was under no pressure or duress in the 2nd half which had a lot to do with his success. He had 2 short plunges for touchdowns that really put the cherry on top for his owners this past week.

Week 17 vs BUF - Brady wound up playing nearly the entire game as the Patriots clinched home field advantage through the playoffs. They fell behind 21-0 in the first quarter but quickly chipped away and eventually won the game rather easily in the end. Brady was in fine form as he carved up the Bills for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns while only tossing a single interception. Brady finished the year with 5,235 passing yards, which is good for second most in NFL history behind only Drew Brees this year.

Week 19 vs DEN - Brady was just about perfect, connecting with just about everyone just about any time he wanted to. Early on he had no reason to even look down field as he picked the Broncos apart with hitches and slants. He completed his first 8 passes including 2 TDs in the first 8 minutes of the game. The first TD was a 7 yard slant to Welker, hitting the small target right in stride in the end zone. The second was a ten yard pass to Gronkowski, thrown just a little wide of the huge target that made an amazing diving catch in the corner of the end zone. There was a little hiccup for the star QB as he badly overthrew Gronkowski over the middle on the next drive. The poorly thrown pass landed right in the gut of a Broncos safety. Two passes later Brady should have been picked again when LB Joe Mays jumped the route and dropped an easy INT. On the very next throw he badly overthrew Aaron Hernandez, forcing the Pats to punt. It didn't take long to get back on track with Brady completing 3/3 on the next drive capped by another TD pass to Gronkoswki. Brady finally looked deep with just over two minutes left in the half and threw an absolutely perfect bomb to Deion Branch for a 61 yard score. The ball hit Branch right in stride down the left sideline. Brady finished the half with a 19 yard bullet to Gronkowski between two defenders for his 5th TD pass. After hitting Aaron Hernandez with a 17 yard TD pass to start the 3rd quarter, Brady put it on cruise control for the rest of the game. He threw just 6 more passes the rest of the way and coasted to the AFC Championship Game.

Week 20 vs BAL - Brady had one of his worst playoff performances, but by no means was his game bad. He missed a wide open Rob Gronkowski for a TD and was also off on a few other throws. He had two interceptions, one on a miscommunication with Julian Edelman, and the other on a terrible decision to throw deep to Matt Slater in double coverage. Brady was also let down by his pass protection (specifically rookie Nate Solder) a few times in the red zone, resulting in field goals. Still, he scanned the field in an instant and released the ball with decisiveness, keeping the Ravens on their heels for most of the game. Brady did score the go-ahead TD on a QB sneak, and moved the Patriots offense well all day. Speculation that he is playing through an injury will continue, and he faces the only team to defeat him in a Super Bowl, so expect him to be tested in Indianapolis.