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Hello, in retrospect. ESPN’s Seth Wickersham has published a book titled “Better To Be Feared” which is a look at everything that happened behind the scenes with the New England Patriots in the days of Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. .
Wickersham’s book is expected to be published next month. On Wednesday he presented some talking points that will be included. From the Patriots receiving preferential treatment through Roger Goodell’s relationship with Bill Belichick to the embittered relationship between Kraft and Belichick, this book is sure to be a doozy.
NBC Sports’ Matt Maiocco discovered something in this book that Niners fans have known for a year and a half: Tom Brady wanted to play for the 49ers. So, for much of the second half of February 2020 and through to March, we talked about Brady’s potential for returning to the Bay Area.
Patriots reporter Tom Curran believed the gossip at the time was “real” and that the 49ers were “shutting down” on Brady. But, based on Wickersham’s book, he said Brady was fed up with not being involved in decision-making regarding Patriots staff movements.
Here’s part of Maiocco’s article that includes Brady’s contract demands and tells him to current 49ers coach and former teammate Wes Welker of his intentions to play for the Niners:
Brady informed Welker, the San Francisco wide receivers coach, that if the 49ers were interested, he would end his Bay Area career after 20 seasons and six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots.
According to the book, Brady wrote down about 20 things he wanted from his new team. His contract request was considered reasonable: two years, $ 50 million.
Brady informed Welker that if the 49ers wanted there would be “no free agency tour, no bidding war, period; he would end his career where his love of football started, in scarlet and gold, allowing his parents to get to (his) games for the first time since the 1990s, ”according to the book.
A source confirms to NBC Sports Bay Area that the 49ers were made aware of Brady’s preference and, as the book reports, the organization was initially skeptical.
But Shanahan has asked each of his offensive assistant coaches to watch all of Brady’s passing attempts from the 2019 season and provide their ratings, Wickersham reports. Shanahan did the same while vacationing with his family in Cabo San Lucas.
According to the book, the 49ers coaches simply liked Brady’s movie and concluded that Brady was only slightly better than Garoppolo at this point in the two men’s careers.
It’s not retrospective to admit that Brady had an interest in playing for San Francisco. However, it is retrospective to say that the 49ers should have taken it out on Brady given the season he had just completed in 2019.
When you look at the New England offense, it’s easy to see why they were fired in the first round of the playoffs. Brady finished 17th in DVOA, 24th in EPA per game, 32nd in success rate, with an above-expected completion percentage of -2.5, which was 35th in the NFL, just below Mitchell Trubisky.
For comparison, Garoppolo finished 10th in DVOA, 9th in EPA per game, sixth in success rate and 14th in CPOE.
Brady looked dejected. Fast forward a season and he won another Super Bowl. To what extent was the lack of success in New England due to non-existent weapons? The Bucs were a big upgrade.
Garoppoolo missed a season with a ripped ACL, but he lacked a reputation as an injury-prone player. So the assumption was that Jimmy G would keep going up on Kyle Shanahan’s offense the longer he played.
Sadly, Garoppolo didn’t play much in 2020 after a severe ankle sprain that limited him. So how many of those 2019 numbers were due to Garoppolo’s environment? This is another part of the assessment that must be separated.
History hasn’t been kind to Shanahan, and the quarterbacks that aren’t on this list and although they don’t select the all-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback when he wanted to play for you is a tough pill to swallow, you have to think about where Brady was after 2019 and recognize that he was going in the wrong direction.
Of course, if there was one player who could challenge Father Time, even in his forties, it’s Tom Brady.
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