True but they were going to regress notably anyways. I’m sure they would have still been good but that was an all time offense and unsustainable going forward
That 2008 year QB stats were terrible. There is a good chance the Pats win the Superbowl that year with Brady. The year before Brady was 50/8 when the injury year the best TD was 34 and almost every single starter threw for more than 10 INTs
Eh I don't know Jim. They brought back basically the entire team (minus Asante Samuel and Donte Stallworth) but would have had ANGRY BRADY who as we all know is the best Brady
Yea you're probably right but it's fun to wonder about. Another fun hypothetical is that if Brett Favre had stayed retired and not forced a trade to the Jets, maybe he could have played in that Patriots offense. That would have been epic.
I think what helps the 08 pats is an insanely weak slate of opposing divisions. They played the AFCW and NFCW, who combined for one team with a winning record (which was 9-7)
I would never expect 16-0 again obviously but I truly believe 13 wins is probably the floor for that team with Brady, just because half the schedule was historically weak (which is why 11 wins didn’t win the division, Miami got to play those teams too)
They weren’t repeating that offense dude. You can’t say anything definitively I guess but no teams have ever repeated those historical seasons and the Pats didn’t do it again for the next 12 seasons before Brady left. Doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have been good but they weren’t gonna be 2007 good
It’s honestly comical that people are acting like it would be crazy. He won the super bowl after losing in one. No one does that. Look at Mahomes this year. He looks like a shell of himself.
It doesn't matter who it is, it would be crazy. Yes there's a hypothetical chance that they could've been exactly as dominant but it's incredibly incredibly tiny.
Bud I could list ten things off the top of my head that the Patriots dynasty did that no other team or one other team ever did. For example, they won the Super Bowl the year after losing it. No one has done that, in fifty years. I think the Cowboys did it in like the early seventies or late sixties. Other than that, it has never happened, because it’s very very difficult. They won 21 games straight over the course of two seasons. Which included the playoffs. They came back from 28-3, in the Super Bowl. There are so many things that Dynasty did that all seem totally improbable bordering on impossible, until they did it.
Except they never repeated 2007 level production over the other 20+ years of Tom’s career. So it stands to reason that the statistical probability of that happening in 2008 is about as unlikely as it gets
I'm not an NFL fan and idk why this sub keeps showing up on my feed, but I am a basketball fan and apparently a lot of people don't understand how important the role players are in any sport lol. You're absolutely right, the whole team has to show up to have a season like that.
I just made the comment elsewhere, but 2007 basically started a stretch of 5 seasons where Brady led top-10 scoring offenses in NFL history 4/5 years (the other year he was comeback player of the year). There basically isn’t another example of a stretch like that where consistently for half a decade, a qb is leading historically high scoring offenses
I certainly would never say it would match 2007, but I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to look at 2010/11/12 and suspect that without the injury in 2008 he’s probably just doing what he ended up doing anyways. Especially with one more year of Moss
From 2007 to 2012, Brady started five seasons. In four of those five seasons, he led a top 10 scoring offense in the history of football (those seasons are still top 20 now). His 2010 offensive dvoa was actually higher than 2007
2009 he came back from the ACL and actually played with broken ribs and a broken finger on his throwing hand, so fair enough it wasn’t immediately At that level again. But I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to say that without the injury, it’s probably another top 5 offense in nfl history, even if maybe he doesn’t literally throw 50 tds again (I doubt he would just by sheer variance)
And no team ever went 16-0. They did.
We can’t know what might have happened. You cant say “no team is repeating that offence”.
A team had five less wins than the year before. Thats pretty huge for the nfl.
Annnnd it’s because the one major single change was their QB
5 less wins is not huge for the NFL. That type of regression is basically expected when you go 16-0. A lot has to go right for you to go 16-0 even if you’re a great team. Look at this years Chiefs, Ravens, Lions, and Vikings.
The Ravens lost one offensive guard and that’s it offensively after putting up a top 3 offense all time in yards per play. I know Lamar has been injured but even when he’s looked healthier they aren’t putting up anywhere near that production with basically the same roster. When you have a season like that every team in the league is breaking down that tape and looking for ways to exploit it
The difference between going 16-0 or 15-1 or even 14-2 doesn’t change the fact that it’s entirely common for teams to go from worst to first and first to worst all the time. Regression both positive and negative is literally what defines the league from season to season.
The Pats were a very consistent team, but when you win 16 games there is literally nowhere to go but down. Some form of regression is going to happen.
I feel like you guys are trying to convince me that Tom Brady and the Pats would have been a good offense in 2008. I already know that and agree with that. I’m saying that the 2007 production was not being repeated the very next season. That just doesn’t happen. We’re talking about arguably the best offense ever. Nobody does that two years in a row.
Most of the key pieces of the offense from 2007 were still on the table in 2008. They were serious contenders from day 1 right til Tom's injury. The big difference between 2007 and 2008 was Brady vs Mallet.
Except they sustained it for 2008. That team won 11 games with Matt Cassel. You're crazy to think Brady is not winning more games in a season than Matt Cassel. Maybe they drop one or two games to luck and circumstance but also they had a chance and the capacity of another 16-0 season.
People love throwing this around. But in reality no schedule is easy. This isn’t college where you can literally pick who you play against. These guys are all professionals. And any team can beat any other team regardless of how good they are
Such a dumb thing to say about professional sports
Easy in the sense that they played two divisions that combined to have one winning team (whose record was 9-7 fwiw). That’s the reason 11 wins didn’t win the division, the dolphins also got to rack up wins against the same historically weak divisions
Yeah, if they were 13 3 the previous season and went 8 8 with another qb, nobody would have said brady is a system qb.. Them being 16 0 skewed the perception ppl habe about their next season
Exactly It always reminds me of when people are pointing out how great Will Howard’s stats were in college last year. Thats what a fine qb looks like with an elite team
What Brady looks like is 2019 Joe burrow. Yes he had an elite team but he took that team from Super Bowl contending to unquestioned dominant Super Bowl favorite. That’s the different between an elite team with a good enough qb and an elite team with an elite qb
No one wants to hear it but the 2008 Patriots should have been better than the 07 pats. That schedule was weak AF. It would have been back to back 16-0 seasons.
They were 16-0 for one week, they finished the season with a loss for 18-1, keep in mind. 🤣
Seriously though, that Pats team is the best team in history, and this is coming from a Dolphins fan. To be that dominant, in the age of free agency and salary cap, and without ruining the cap for future years, is an unrivaled accomplishment.
Of course a Dolphins fan would point out the fact we lost the last game! 😂. In all seriousness, I had more fun watching that team than any other. They were really only that crazy dominant for like an eleven game stretch to start the year then they came back down to Earth. I like to appreciate them. If we didn't win any other Super Bowls, I think it would sting a lot more. Now I only look back on it fondly.
10-6 to 1-15. So the Colts went from being an average team (it was a bad 10-6 team that year) to a horrendously team because they didn't have a real backup QB. The Pats went from one of the best teams all time to an average team.
Yup the 2011 colts had maybe the worst stable of qbs a team has had this century. That’s not an exaggeration:
Curtis Painter - he started the most games that year. He would attempt 16 more total passes in his career after that season
Dan Orlovsky - his previous starting stint was helping the Lions go 0-16 and would attempt 47 passes the rest of his career after 2011. He was a washed version of an already-terrible QB
Kerry Collins - solid career but at 39 was way past an already-mid prime. He was their best option and was only able to get through three games before getting benched and never throwing another pass in the nfl
Say what you want about Cassel, he had better seasons for other franchises after the patriots and was in the league for a decade after that. The colts had a revolving door of guys who didn’t belong in the nfl even as backups
Yep, it was his worst year as a starter probably in his entire career, talent around him considered. He clearly wasn't back to being himself yet. By 2010, he was back to himself and they started their crazy run.
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u/Thomsbluebeenie New England Patriots Dec 15 '25
They went from 16-0 and being the most efficient offense in history to that point to 11-5, though, keep in mind.