Mediocrity In Today’s NFL

It might be great audio but I can't listen to Tom Brady without being paid to do so so unless you want to summarize, I'll just tell you my thoughts on the subjects.

QB play seems like it's at low ebb these days. It was really bad in the early 70's dead ball era when many college qb's were on teams that ran most of the time and they didn't develop great passing skills. Now guys come out of college from systems where passing is emphasized more but they make one designed read then take off running. It's dumbed-down football for kids who maybe don't get solid educational fundamentals growing up. The end results seem similar in terms of qb quality. College olines aren't as good at pass pro and the qbs are more of the mobile types who don't learn to operate from the pocket. Or you get a pocket guy like Bryce Young but he's too small, yet NFL teams think he should go at the top of the draft because there's hardly any prospects out there with a well developed pocket game. So then you have to develop it on the fly in the NFL where if a guy gets overdrafted, in the wrong system, wrong coach, or just doesn't have what it takes, you burn the draft pick and the money and the time and patience of the fans and owners and players and so on while your kid qb f*cks up royally, Zach Wilson.

NFL teams can defend a one-read running qb pretty easily. It's why guys who are allegedly great prospects like Justin Fields end up going bust. Due to 5 year option rules and escalating salaries at the position where bums like Daniel Jones get 40mil/yr, teams have also taken to overdrafting qb's pretty badly at times and this raises expectations about guys like for example Mac Jones or Trey Lance, who can never hope to meet those expectations.

As far as pining to watch Ronnie Lott kill somebody, defenses are more sophisticated now than ever and just because you can't take a guy's head off and/or end his career with a hit doesn't mean the game isn't physical, if it wasn't physical the constant stream of injuries wouldn't be happening. Of course it does mean we'll probably never see another guy with as great a nickname as Hacksaw Reynolds.

Players are much faster as well. I think the increasing speed of players is a hugely overlooked factor when making comparisons to the past. I remember when linemen were like chugging elephants who needed 5 seconds to get from the line to the qb. They are so much faster and better athletes now. If they didn't legislate some of the violent hits out of the game players would literally end up dead. See Damar Hamlin for reference. You have to evolve the rules as the players evolve. And I watched football in the 70's when guys like Jack Tatum were out head hunting and violent hits that we now know cause concussions and CTE were glorified by NFL films. Stuff changes, you have to deal with reality not nostalgia.

Well if Harrison, Lewis, and Lott would get penalized in every game that they played to today? Then the likes of Jack Tatum, Doug Plank, Lyle Alzado and Dick Butkus would probably be ejected in every game that they played in today. Then suspended and brought up on criminal charges. There's always gonna be injuries, nature of the beast. Marino blew his Achilles the same way Kirk and Aaron did. Just stepped in a divot and it exploded.

Tom Brady needs to STFU...period.
The league is now mediocre...because you're not in it?! GTFOH

Those players you mentioned played under different RULES. Rules now dictate some of what you say is 'mediocre football' The rest of it is parity, not mediocrosy

I have the same stipulation for Rich Eisen. No money no listen.

He says "that players like Ronnie Lott, Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison would get penalized every game if they played today".

Even the picture in the tweet looks an awful lot like him screaming...HOW IS THAT NOT A PENALTY!!!

I listened to Eison and I 75% agree with him...lol. He 100% agrees with Brady but then goes on to kinda break down why the mediocrity happens because of too many rookies and guy with no playing time forced into starting rolls. Some which kind of swing away from Brady's points. So 95% agree??

Look no further then the salary cap and QB contracts. In Ronnie Lott's and some of the old time greats that wouldn't be allowed to play today there was no salary cap or free agency, before 1994. The 49ers could have a Montana and a Steve Young. Now days if a backup gets in and plays above backup level he gets paid starter level for the next team. Who then usually regrets doing so. 
In short I agree development needs to be better. More off season practices would help. The players union set these limits. So for any former player to now complain it's gotten mediocre is disingenuous.  It's what you fought and voted for.
Lastly about hitting.  It's not just the defenseless offensive player these type hits hurt. Great defensive players like Junior Seau died or had their quality of after football life ended.
It's a game not really a battle and nobody should die for a game