Asante Samuel: Tom Brady Would Lead 'Terrible' New England Patriots to Super Bowl

Outspoken former New England Patriots defender Asante Samuel embarked upon another rant against Bill Belichick and implied that a 46-year-old Tom Brady would be capable of leading the modern team to a Super Bowl.

The New England Patriots have tried everything to solve their offensive woes. Everything, former defender Asante Samuel claims, except the most obvious ... if not tired ... experiment. 

Samuel, a two-time Super Bowl champion and former Foxborough secondary man, weighed on the state of the Patriots in an interview with TMZ Sports. The four-time Pro Bowler embarked upon another roast of head coach Bill Belichick in the wake of consecutive blowout losses and raised the talking point that the team's success over the prior two decades was a testament to quarterback Tom Brady's greatness rather than the top headset wearer.

"(Belichick) has no clue what to do without Tom, post-Tom Brady, as we can see, and it's just amazing that he was able to pull the wool over everybody's face," Samuel, who spent the first five seasons (2003-07) of an 11-year NFL career with the Patriots, said. "I was there. I watched everything and I was the guy, wondering how we were bringing in these. I will say, mediocre players, putting offensive players in on defense, and still winning.

"He's still the same Bill Belichick and maybe it's his ego that he thinks (that) he was really the person that was making all these things work and now he's trying to be the same Bill Belichick and it's not working. He is who he is."

New England (1-4) is off to its worst start since Belichick's debut season in 2000, one year before Brady took over Foxborough's franchise quarterback role. The last two defeats have been particularly embarrassing, as the Patriots dropped consecutive interconference contests to Dallas and New Orleans by a combined 69 points.

Asked what New England, as constructed, can do to right a ship that may already be irrevocably off course, Samuel advised the team to get on the phone and resurrect the "bring back Brady" trope. Brady, 46, has emphatically declared that his latest retirement is permanent, but that hasn't stopped Samuel and others from playing a new brand of fantasy football.

"Tom Brady, right now, he can win a Super Bowl for the New England Patriots," Samuel said. "(With) this terrible team, that everybody sees as a terrible team, he can come right now today and win the Super Bowl for New England Patriots. Because that's Tom Brady."

Samuel, seen during Super Bowl XLII, has been one of Bill Belichick's most outspoken critics / USA TODAY SPORTS

Tired as the Brady meme may be at this point, there's no denying that Brady brought the best out of otherwise mediocre New England rosters. Samuel compared a hypothetical 2023 Brady title run to the one staged after the 2014 campaign. 

At that time, Brady's top receivers (beyond tight end Rob Gronkowski) were Julian Edelman and Brandon LaFell while his top rusher was one-game wonder Jonas Gray. Even with that relatively paltry lineup, Brady guided the Patriots to 12 wins and the fourth of six Super Bowls.

"I see the same exact team (this year), it's only minus Tom," Samuel said. "My point of saying that is because Belichick is just the guy there who is not really providing much for the team and it's showing over and over and it's getting worse and worse."

Belichick is 17 wins away from tying Don Shula's long-standing record for victories at an NFL helm. But between his pre-New England work with the Cleveland Browns (1991-95) and the post-Brady era in Foxborough (since 2020), Belichick holds a 62-73 regular season record as a head coach and just a single playoff win when No. 12 isn't on the roster. 

If anyone associated with the Patriots is reveling in the team's demise, it's likely Samuel, who engaged in several summer rants speaking out against Belichick's supposed impact on the New England glory days. While it seems that Belichick has at least earned a sparing from the humiliation of a mid-season firing, Samuel says that the Patriots should at least consider revoking some of his power over personnel moving forward.

"You've got to take control away," Samuel said. "It seems like (owner Robert Kraft is scared of coach Belichick ... you're the one that could step in and take this away but you're not doing it and you're letting the whole Patriot legacy thing just continue to die and look like to belongs to one man ... I don't know why this is lasting so long and why everybody still believes in Belichick."