Barely a week into his first training camp since Rob Gronkowski's offseason retirement, Tom Brady has already been asked multiple times about trying to move on offensively without the future Hall of Famer. It's a question he should probably get used to.
First he told NFL Network that reestablishing an offense each summer without key cogs is like climbing mountain and starting at the bottom again each year.
Wednesday at Gillette Stadium, in his first availability of the summer with the local media, Brady made a different comparison. Like so many parents preaching to so many kids over the years about the value of money, this time TB12 went with the "don't grow on trees" line of thinking.
"He's a great player. To replace great players, it's not like you just pick another one off the tight end tree," Brady said. "You can't just go out back. You've got to find guys that come in and want to put the work in and want to try and contribute. Between the guys we have out here now, which is Ben [Watson], and Matt [LaCosse], Stephen [Anderson], Ryan Izzo, Lance [Kendricks] who we just got – those guys are trying to do everything they can do. They're all new players, so we've got to figure out how to get them up to speed to what our expectations are, the level of competition on a daily basis."
It's also a process that takes place battling a talented, veteran Patriots pass defense on a daily basis. In the long run that could be a benefit, but for now it's led to some tough sledding, as was the case on Wednesday.
"We've got a very good defense this year. Those guys are challenging us on every day," Brady admitted. "It's hard to complete passes on our secondary. That's just the reality. So, it's actually great work for our offense to see how we measure up against a very good defense. Days like today are frustrating for us and we've got to learn from the corrections and try to come out and have a better day tomorrow."
