The Bucs offense is sputtering. They have failed to surpass 24 points in all but one game this season.

Their 121 points scored rank 18th in the NFL through the first six weeks of the season headed into tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup between the Broncos and the Chargers. And there are certainly reasons why the offense has underachieved their previously high level of play. But one of those reasons is not the play of the quarterback.

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: USA Today

A very smart man recently said when a team struggles it is usually not due to the team’s stars, but rather the play of the less-talented pieces.  Starter numbers 19-22 are more likely the reason a team fails than starters 1-4. This couldn’t be truer for the Bucs offense at the moment.

Narratives have been drawn placing blame for the poor showing in Pittsburgh, at least in part, on the fact that quarterback Tom Brady attended a wedding for Robert Kraft Friday night. Or that he is distracted due to speculated issues he is dealing with in his personal life.

Don’t believe the hype.

The truth of the matter is, Brady is still playing at a high level. And of all the things plaguing the Bucs offense, Brady’s play ranks so far down on the list, in a day and age of 180-character messages no one would get to it. Let’s look at the facts.

Brady ranks fifth in player grade (77.8) according to Pro Football Focus this season among quarterbacks with at least 140 drop backs. Are PFF grades not your cup of tea? Okay, fair enough. He is 10th in the league in expected points added per play (0.136). He ranks 8th in EPA + CPOE (Completion percentage over expected) composite with 0.104.

And he can still make plays like this:

Lots of things are plaguing the Bucs offense right now. But if anyone tries to tell you it’s QB play…well Imma just leave this right here. pic.twitter.com/hWuMCef1Op

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) October 17, 2022

Bucs Brady Has And Still Does Make Insane Throws

Now we have established the numbers side of things. But let’s look at things at the play level. Let’s say this play. Since posting the tweet I have seen some pushback that Brady made a bad decision in making that throw. It was triple coverage that he threw into, after all, right? Well … not exactly.

Go back and watch the clip again. There was very little separation that Godwin was able to achieve on the route. His primary defender was well in phase. However, Authur Maulet (No. 35) had his back turned to Brady. So, Brady didn’t have to worry about Maulet picking him off. The other two Steelers who come into frame are safety Tre Norwood coming from the top of your screen down and safety Terrell Edmunds who ends up making the tackle.

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: USA Today

Edmunds has no chance at affecting the catch and just ends up finishing the play. He was never an issue on the throw itself. Norwood makes a valiant effort to try and disrupt the pass but was unable to. Why? Because of the velocity and location of the throw Brady made.

He puts the throw on Godwin’s back shoulder away from Norwood. This is called a tight window throw. It is designed to get a ball to a receiver who isn’t wide open without putting much risk of an interception into play. And Brady does just that. It’s why PFF had Brady with no “turnover-worthy plays” for the day.

Did Brady nail every throw on the afternoon? No. He had a few balls that were difficult to catch that he put on receivers. Some of those were thrown low towards the receiver’s feet. But these are throws he has routinely made throughout his time in Tampa Bay on purpose. He has put them in this area specifically to ensure defenders have no shot at intercepting them.

In years past Godwin has brought them down at a high rate. This year not so much. But pull back the veil a bit more and you can see that Brady’s completion percentage over expected (which adds back in receiver drops and accounts for ball placement) has Brady completing 1.1% more passes this year than what would be expected of him.

No, Brady is not anywhere close to why the Bucs offense isn’t performing to standard this year. Those issues belong to things like Byron Leftwich’s play-calling, left guard play, and running back play. The Bucs have huge opportunities to improve their offense by focusing on those opportunities.

But the quarterback play is not one of those things.