Patriots Legends Tom Brady and Julian Edelman Clap Back At Alex Smith's "Cupcake Division" Comment

Smith's comment, which received backlash from Julian Edelman and Randy Moss, came in response to Tom Brady calling the modern NFL landscape "mediocre"

A trio of former New England Patriots are not happy with Alex Smith. Smith previously ripped into the AFC East, calling the division “uncompetitive” during Tom Brady’s career.

Smith, the former Utah quarterback, and current ESPN analyst, made his initial comment on the division months ago, sharing his opinion following disapproval of Brady’s statement regarding the current NFL landscape being “mediocre”.

In response to Brady's comments, Smith divulged a series of call-outs aimed at the retired GOAT and his former division.

On ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown, Smith said, “I mean, you come out of training camp in the biggest cupcake division, you got a ticket to the playoffs right away. Like, talk about mediocre."

Tom Brady: "I think there's a lot of mediocrity in today's NFL."

Alex Smith's drop the 🎤 response: pic.twitter.com/ltDHsNgwJr

— Starcade Media (@StarcadeMediaKC) November 28, 2023

In addition to flipping Brady’s "mediocre" comment onto the AFC East, Smith also pointed out that Brady had not been retired for that long and won a Super Bowl in the modern NFL he was so keen on trashing.

After a small back-and-forth between two career NFL quarterbacks, the dispute went silent.

That was, until a recent edition of Brady’s “The Let's Go Podcast”, where the debate opened back up. This time, with two additional former Patriots taking a stab at Smith.

Joined by former New England receivers Julian Edelman and Randy Moss, the three former AFC East players chimed in on Smith’s comments.

Edelman would lead the charge, defending his former quarterback, repeatedly saying Smith was “not that guy”.

Moss, who was present during the ESPN segment where Smith initially expressed his opinion, mainly held that he was shocked Smith went after the AFC East, calling it a “crazy moment”

Finally, Brady, whose comments on the current NFL started the “beef”, was heard in the background ensuring there was no real ill-will towards Smith.

“He’s great, I love Alex -- I love Alex,” Brady finished.

While nothing more than a lighthearted argument between a group of NFL greats, Smith and Brady’s comments do spark an interesting debate.

In 2021, Arnav Gupta, from the University of California Berkeley’s sports analytics group found evidence that seems to show the Patriots were not in a “cupcake division” and rather just better than everyone else.

One of Gupta’s most convincing pieces of evidence was data surrounding how many multiple 10+ win teams each division had in a timeframe between 2002 and 2019. Gupta’s data showed that the AFC East was tied with the AFC North and NFC East for most seasons with multiple 10+ win teams at eight.

While the data is convincing, there are many other factors to consider. Regardless, Smith’s comments were very entertaining and seemed to ruffle the feathers of many AFC East and Patriots players and fans.