Tom Brady Says There's 'A Lot Of Mediocrity' In Today's NFL, Blames Coaching Around The League

Tom Brady doesn't like what he's seen around the NFL so far this season. Having only officially retired back in February, the future Hall of Famer is very much a part of this era of the league, but through 11 weeks of the 2023 season he thinks things have changed, and not for the better.

Brady recently joined 'The Stephen A. Smith Show' and did not hold back with his criticisms of the now 'mediocre' scene in professional football.

"I think there's a lot of mediocrity in today's NFL," Brady told Smith." "I don't see the excellence that I saw in the past."

It's not necessarily a player issue, but more so a lack of great coaching according to Brady. The rules in today's game, which have undoubtedly become 'softer' to protect players, aren't exactly helping the NFL's cause either.

"I don't think the coaching is as good as it was," Brady said. "I don't think the development of the young players is as good as it was. The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game. I just think the product, in my opinion, is less than what it's been."

"I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott, guys that impacted the game in a certain way," Brady continued. "Every hit they would have made would have been a penalty. You hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackled. Why don't they talk to their player about how to protect themselves? We used to work on the fundamentals of those things all the time. Now they're trying to be regulated all the time. 

Tom Brady Isn't Excited About Today's NFL

While the NFL's popularity hasn't taken a hit, it's hard to argue with Brady's opinion given the fact that he lived and played 23 seasons in the league. He played for arguably the greatest coach in NFL history in Bill Belichick and certainly against some of the best coaches in the league as well.

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Brady is one of the incredibly few players who can say he played in both the old-school era and the new NFL. He entered the league when quarterbacks were still getting their heads taken off in the backfield, while in today's league players can literally only touch quarterbacks in certain areas.

Brady's point about coaching is an interesting one. NFL staffs have never been larger from a personnel perspective as every team is trying to be as unique as possible in every imaginable facet. With that being the case, some of those coachable fundamentals may be falling through the cracks, or at the very least become mediocre over time.

Brady certainly isn't the only person in the world that shares these kinds of thoughts about today's game, but definitely has one of the more impactful voices on the matter.