Tom Brady has vastly improved as a broadcaster

With just under six minutes remaining in the third quarter of the Thanksgiving day matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions on Thursday afternoon, Jordan Love found Dontayvion Wicks for a 30-yard gain to set Green Bay up at Detroit’s 25-yard line. As his job now requires him to do, Tom Brady analyzed the big gain on Fox’s broadcast.

“There he is. Wicks just sliding through the line of scrimmage, straight up the seam,” the 7-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback said as a replay aired. “Again, when I told you earlier in the game, when there’s a safety in the middle of the field, you want to attack the seams. It’s not that hard. Look off the safety and throw the seam.”

In and of itself, Brady’s analysis was fairly unremarkable; all he was doing was narrating a replay and providing his perspective as a former quarterback. But in the larger context of his two-year career as a broadcaster, it was one of the best pieces of evidence you could find to pinpoint the impressive year-over-year improvement he’s made.

Brady was insightful, but concise, hammering home his point in a 15-second window. He also displayed his trademark confidence in a way that was clearly complimentary of Love, while simultaneously providing a dash of humor in the form of a callback to his NFL on Fox commercial from earlier this season.

There were other highlights too; just minutes earlier, he joked that Micah Parsons should stop complaining to the refs because he should know by now that he’s going to get held of on every play. Throughout Thursday’s broadcast, Brady appeared more comfortable and mechanically improved as an analyst — especially compared to this time a year ago, when his Thanksgiving debut as a broadcaster was universally panned.

We’re hardly the only ones who have taken notice.

That’s not to say that anybody’s going to accuse Brady of being the modern day John Madden anytime soon, and most would likely still consider him a tier below Fox’s current No. 2 analyst, Greg Olsen, as a pure broadcaster. But if we’re calling balls and strikes, the 48-year-old’s vast improvement is worth calling attention to, especially considering how rare it is to have an ex-athlete of his stature on weekly national broadcasts.

It’s also fair to wonder how much better Brady can still get, as he’s only midway through the second season of his 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox. Ultimately, the network knew that it was paying more for his notoriety than it was his broadcasting acumen. But just as he did during his legendary playing career, the 3-time NFL MVP is beginning to develop a reputation for delivering when it matters most.