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The Chronicle

The Chronicle

The Chronicle

Brady-less Patriots go from dynasty to disaster

The New England Patriots have been one of the most envied sports teams for the past 19 years.

With nine Super Bowl appearances and six of those being wins, Tom Brady made a Patriots dynasty possible.

In 2000, Brady started as an underrated quarterback, who was drafted 199th overall in the 6th round of the NFL draft.

Because he was such a late pick, he is considered the most significant “steal” in the history of NFL drafts.

While he was marked as a second-string quarterback in 2000, the following year he took over as starting quarterback when Drew Bledsoe was injured.

He then smashed multiple records, won numerous MVP awards, and championed several Super Bowls over the next 19 years for the Patriots.

Following the 2019 season and the expiration of his contract, Brady left the Patriots and joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a 2-year contract deal.

Let’s take a look at some of Brady’s stellar accomplishments:

Brady is one of two quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl in the first year as a starter, with the other being Kurt Warner in 1999.

Coincidentally, Brady beat Warner in his first Super Bowl win.

Brady is also the only quarterback to reach 200 regular-season wins, with retired QBs Brett Favre and Peyton Manning trailing behind him, each with 186 regular-season wins.

For regular season and postseason combined,  Brady is the all-time leader in career passing yards and touchdown passes.

He is one of only two players in NFL history to amass 70,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards, the other being Favre.

These are only a few of Brady’s accomplishments.

It’s clear that Brady played a large role in the Patriots dynasty.

With Brady, the Patriots went to the playoffs 17 of 19 seasons, only missing out on the 2002 and 2008 playoffs.

They also went to nine Super Bowls and won a whopping six.  With Brady, the Patriots had 10+ wins every regular season except for 2002 at nine wins.

When Brady left, things started to fall apart.

The Patriots picked up Cam Newton, former QB for the Panthers. With the good remaining wide receivers growing old, Newton is not as well off as Brady was.

The current regular season record for the Patriots is 2-5, a record Brady never accomplished when he started his career in New England.

This raises the question many NFL fans have: Is the Patriots dynasty ending?

Rex Ryan, former NFL coach and current TV analyst says it is.

“It’s over,” the former Jets coach said. “It’s flat-out over. They’re 3.5 games behind Buffalo, and they’re not going to win the wild card. So, yeah, look, the playoff run is over. Pass the torch to the Buffalo Bills. I think the Patriots are going to end up being behind Miami when it’s all said and done as well … to me, it just shows also that the greatest player in the game has a hell of a lot bigger impact than the greatest coach in the game.”

Many fans agree with Ryan.

We still have half of the regular season ahead of us. Let’s see what the Patriots can do.

However, without the future Hall of Famer, their legacy may be coming to an end.

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