Tom Brady has tortured the Pittsburgh Steelers throughout his illustrious 23-year playing career, and this week will be playing the Steelers for the first time in a Tampa Bay uniform. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is no stranger to trying to scheme a way to stop the future Hall of Famer, as the two have gone head-to-head nine times, with Brady coming on top all but twice.
This year Brady will come to Pittsburgh at the age of 45, and, as mentioned before, on a new team. During Tomlin’s press conference today via the Steelers’ YouTube channel, he was asked if he notices anything different about Brady now than in years prior. Tomlin responded:
“No, I don’t see any limits in his play from a schematic standpoint. The same things that made him special at 35 are the same at 45.”
Despite Brady’s increase in age, he still has an incredible mind for the game and can read a defense just as good as he did over a decade ago. Tomlin continued his praise of Brady by breaking down specifically what makes him special in his presser saying:
“[He’s] highly competitive, very good mechanically, field vision, ball placement, competitive, can break the game down in a tight space or see the broad picture as well, inclusive in terms of his utilization of eligibles.”
Brady brought his elite play and winning mentality to a Buccaneers team that was coming off of a 7-9 season with Jameis Winston at quarterback. The next year, Brady led that same Tampa Bay team to a Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
To beat the Bucs, Tomlin and the Steelers need to scheme a way to slow down Tom Brady, and that has proven tough to do. Mike Tomlin may call on the help of linebacker coach Brian Flores to scheme up a way to limit the damage Brady can do. Flores coached against Brady in 2019 as the Miami Dolphins’ head coach and was able to hand Brady a loss in his last regular season home game at Gillette Stadium. However, that is not the only connection Flores has to Brady. Flores was on Bill Belichick’s coaching staff in New England from 2008-2018 before he accepted the head coaching position in Miami.
The Steelers are a beat up and injured football team, and to defeat Brady and the Buccaneers they will need to have a healthy secondary and play a near perfect game of football. If Tomlin can pick the brain of Flores and have him help design some new coverages or blitzes that may attack some of Brady’s few weaknesses, then Pittsburgh may have a shot at stopping the future Hall of Famer and scoring an upset over Tampa Bay.
