Brady: Love Had ‘Best Type of Training’

While Jordan Love had a breakthrough debut season, the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings might be relying on rookie quarterbacks with Caleb Williams and J.J. McCarthy.

Tom Brady vs. the Packers in 2022. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With the 2024 NFL season approaching, the NFC North quarterback rooms have been turned upside-down.

For the Green Bay Packers, Jordan Love has gone from the great unknown to perhaps the next great quarterback. While Jared Goff received a contract extension with the Detroit Lions, the Chicago Bears traded Justin Fields and used the No. 1 overall pick on quarterback Caleb Williams and the Minnesota Vikings replaced Kirk Cousins with first-round pick J.J. McCarthy.

Will Williams or McCarthy make the Bears or Vikings playoff contenders this year? Next year? Ever?

Appearing on The Herd, legendary quarterback and new Fox Sports NFL analyst Tom Brady said the Packers did it the right way with Love.

“You look at Jordan Love, he had Aaron Rodgers to watch. That’s the best type of training, in my opinion,” Brady said. “Watch someone else do it at a very high level and then try to emulate them with your own personality.”

Williams won’t have that luxury with the Bears, where Tyson Bagent and Brett Rypien are the so-called veterans of the room. On the other hand, in Minnesota, McCarthy will battle Sam Darnold, the third pick of the 2018 draft who has 56 starts on his resume.

Beyond that, Brady said, it’s about having the right coaches and the right system.

Williams will be surrounded by a strong supporting cast with receivers D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze and tight end Cole Kmet. Does he have the right coaches? New offensive coordinator Shane Waldron helped get the best out of Geno Smith the past two years.

McCarthy also will have a strong supporting cast with receivers Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, tight end T.J. Hockenson (eventually) and running back Aaron Jones. Plus, Cousins thrived under coach Kevin O’Connell and offensive coordinator Wes Phillips, and new quarterbacks coach Josh McCown started 76 games from 2002 through 2019.

“Maybe a little bit of a misnomer with the draft is that these players can come in and, all of a sudden, become this great professional player before they’ve really had the training and the development,” Brady said. “It was rare for quite a while for rookie quarterbacks to come in and play. Maybe if you’re the first overall pick, but not if you’re a second-rounder, a third-rounder. You had a chance to be groomed.

“Well, we’re not allowing them to do that much anymore. Now we’re throwing them out there. ‘Let’s see what you can do.’ It’s a really challenging thing.”

Love, of course, got to sit behind Rodgers. By the time he became the full-time starter last season, he had run coach Matt LaFleur’s offense on the practice field for three seasons.

Williams already has been anointed QB1 for Chicago, and it’s probably only a matter of time before McCarthy moves past Darnold. In their cases, Williams and McCarthy will be tasked with learning on the fly.

“If I was a young quarterback in this day and age, to go out there with the pressure of the agents and the families, the schools, the social media, the fans, the coaches, the owner, how do these kids live up to that?” Brady wondered.

“I think it’s a real challenge for these young quarterbacks. Hopefully, they go into a system that can embrace them, that can fit and mold who they are. Hopefully, they have coaches around them that can develop them in the best possible way.”

The legendary Brady was a sixth-round pick by the Patriots in 2000. He threw three passes as a rookie as Drew Bledsoe’s backup before getting thrown into the fire after Bledsoe was injured early in 2021.

Learning from Bledsoe, coach Bill Belichick and Charlie Weis played a role in Brady’s rise to football immortality.

“I think naturally as an athlete we’re all going to question as we move up to the next level,” Brady said. “‘Are we capable? Are we enough?’ For most of the answers. I think we don’t know. We’re going to have to wait and see the development.

“It’s not necessarily about someone’s physical potential all the time. You could be very physically talented; you could absolutely go to the wrong fit and have a coach instruct you to do things that are almost impossible to do. … My first year, I had Drew Bledsoe to look up to. He took all the reps. I got to sit there from behind and watch him every single day. I had a real mentor to look up to.”

Just like Love. It will be up to Williams and McCarthy to lean on their talent, and the talent of their teammates, to keep up.

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