Tom Brady's decision to come out of retirement didn't go exactly as expected. When he changed his mind to play another season with the Buccaneers, many expected Tampa Bay to be in Super Bowl contention again.
Instead, the Bucs barely made the playoffs with a losing record—the fact that they still finished atop the NFC South says more about the division than from the team itself. Their hopes didn't last long, though, as the Dallas Cowboys beat them in the Wild Card round.
Since then, Brady's future has been the biggest talking point in Tampa. He enters the 2023 offseason as a free agent but nobody knows what the future holds for him yet. While many teams would knock on his door, former Bucs QB Shaun King believes Brady's best days are far behind him.
Former Bucs QB says Father Time caught up to Tom Brady
“Let’s be honest, man. Why does everybody beat around the bush? Tom Brady is the most accomplished quarterback at the professional level we’ve ever seen, and nobody in modern football is getting to 10 Super Bowls, and they’re definitely not winning seven. In spite of that, you still should be honest about what he is now. He’s a shell of himself. Especially when he’s encountered with pressure,” King told Compare.bet, via Fox News.
“It happens, man. You get old. You step off the sidewalk and you feel like you jumped off a ten-story building. It happens to everybody. It’s just a part of getting old,” King continued. “Yeah, in spurts he can still make some throws, and, yeah, every second or third game he can have a fourth quarter that makes you remember how great he was. But from start to finish, he’s not the same player. Age is undefeated. If you watch Tom Brady play, when he is under pressure and duress, he is completely out of whack. That’s just the reality of it.”
King, a second-round pick by the Buccaneers in 1999, spent five seasons with Tampa Bay. While he admits Brady might be the best quarterback of all time, he feels the Bucs can no longer expect greatness from him. Well, this was certainly not Brady's best season. In fact, it may have been one of his worst. Either way, if there's something Brady thrives at is in proving the doubters wrong.
