‘The Brady 6’ Highlights Draft Uncertainty

It is often said that drafting a quarterback is the hardest thing to do in the NFL Draft. There is no better example of that than back in 2000 when the New England Patriots selected Tom Brady with the 199th overall pick — six quarterbacks were taken before Brady. Last night, ESPN followed through with “The Year of the Quarterback” and put together a brilliant sixty minute documentary, “The Brady 6.”

The quarterbacks taken before Brady were Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger and Spergon Wynn. Of the six, only Bulger and Pennington ever made their mark as starters.

In the documentary, Brady got very emotional and was brought to tears when he was recalling his draft day experience. He was led to believe he would be selected in the second or third round, but his phone never rang. Brady detailed his day with his parents until he eventually got the call from the only team who talked to him before the draft, the Patriots.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the documentary was former 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci trying to defend his decision to select Giovanni Carmazzi in the third round. Mariucci insists that Brady showed the 49ers nothing and really seems to believe he made the right choice. To be fair, no one could have predicted Brady’s excellence.

On top of highlighting Brady’s draft day fall and showing the uncertainty of the draft, the documentary also gave us an inside look at what makes Tom Brady so good. It’s his heart and competitiveness.

Another thing that comes out of the documentary is how much faith BB and Brady have always had in Brady. At one point in the documentary, Tom Brady meets Robert Kraft for the first time and the question comes up of whether or not Kraft knows who Brady is, and Kraft says “Yeah you’re our sixth round quarterback we just drafted” to which Tom Brady replies “Yes, and I”m the best decision this franchise has ever made”. The Patriots stick with Brady, and Bill Belichick even mentions at one point that the Patriots were so afraid of losing him that they played the entire season with four quarterbacks, which is almost unheard of, just to make sure no one could snag Brady.

The other thing that happens Brady tells one of his friends in the league that he’s going to beat out Drew Bledsone that year, which BB later admits he does, but they want with Bledsoe because of his experience.  You can’t measure heart.

While you see Brady break down in the show, you realize how much it hurt him to fall in the draft. He made it his goal to prove everyone wrong and show they made a mistake. Brady was confident in his skill and used his draft day fall as motivation to become the player he is. I highly recommend you set your DVR and catch a replay of the sixty minute show if you get a chance.

If you learned one thing from “The Brady 6,” learn this: there is no exact science to drafting quarterbacks. While the Cam Newton and Blaine Gabbert’s of this draft may be the big names, maybe it will be a guy like Greg McElroy who scouts say has limited upside and below average athletic skills who proves to be the next big steal late in the draft.