After watching Tom Bradystruggle mightily in Monday night's 41-14 defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs, former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison says New England's star quarterback looks "scared to death" throwing the ball.
"Tom Brady can still play," Harrison told WEEI-FM on Tuesday, per ESPN Boston. "But when you surround him -- there's a reason why Brandon LaFell was let go (by Carolina). He's not a great player. He's a young guy, and he has to make his way in this league.
"And Danny Amendola, you look at him, no one ever said he was a great player. He's always been hurt. The history is behind it. Rob Gronkowski obviously coming off that ACL injury, he's been hurt. So it's not like when you look at the Patriots on paper they just have all these weapons and teams are afraid of them."
Brady was far from efficient against the Chiefs, tossing twointerceptions on a night that saw the 37-year-old passer look entirely uncomfortable behind a scattershot offensive line. It's arguably the worst group of blockers Brady has ever been saddled with, but we can't let the signal-caller off the hook. Brady threw his share of head-scratchers and failed to move the ball before Bill Belichick mercifully yanked him for rookie Jimmy Garoppolo.
"Whether Bill pulled (Brady) because he's afraid he was going to get injured, or Bill was trying to send him a non-subtle message, as a player your mind kind of starts playing tricks on you and you start thinking like, 'What's going on?'" Harrison said. "But at the end of the day, Tom needs to play better. The offensive line needs to protect him, but Tom -- we've said it week in and week out -- he's missing opportunities that are there; he's just floating the ball in the air."
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