The Steelers suffer from a case of ‘Tom Brady syndrome’

Atlanta Falcons

The Steelers, while perhaps the best example, are by far the only example. A case in point is the Atlanta Falcons.  Though still able to lead the team, his skills have undoubtedly diminished over the last few seasons. They could have drafted Justin Fields or Mac Jones. Yet what did they do? They decided to draft Kyle Pitts to give Ryan additional weapons to be more productive and make another playoff run. Sound Familiar?

There is no doubt Pitts may have a great career; however, the Falcons are only  5-8 and still no clear exit strategy for Ryan’s eventual departure.

New Orleans Saints

The Saints had the same issue. They went with Drew Brees until he could no longer play. In the regular season, few quarterbacks were better. In his last seven seasons, though,  he could only muster four playoff victories and no Superbowl appearances.  Yet they kept trying to load the team with the talent to take the pressure off Brees, only leading to them running up the salary cap instead.

New York Giants

Then you have Eli Manning. Even when his skills began to decline Giant’s ownership still insisted he could lead the team to glory. In 2018 vice president of player evaluation Marc Ross urged Giants ownership to cut Manning and draft Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, or Lamar Jackson.

What did the Giants do? They fired Ross drafted Saquon Barkley, finished 5-11, and drafted Daniel Jones in the 2019 draft.

New England Patriots

Even Patriots coach Bill Belichik had the same complaints about the dead cap money left by trying to continue to place talent around Brady to allow the Patriots to dominate the AFC East. He wasn’t wrong, although perhaps a bit short-sighted in that he had the one exception as his quarterback.