Will the New England Patriots ever replace Tom Brady?

Tom Brady will forever be a New England Patriots legend. That much is written in stone. The success he achieved with the franchise is unlikely to ever be matched.

Yet, there will always be a need for quarterbacks in Foxboro after TB12, and the question still remains: will the Pats ever be able to replace him?

The question of whether Tom Brady made Bill Belichick or Bill Belichick made Tom Brady was answered just a smidgen when the quarterback led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl championship. Meanwhile, Belichick is working on a project where he's trying to develop Mac Jones.

The jury is out on Jones, despite an impressive rookie season.

Some believe the Pats need a full rebuild, while others would have liked the team to sign a veteran QB and try and keep the dynasty running. Did Belichick make the right call?

Is Tom Brady simply irreplaceable in New England?

Tom Brady achieved barely believable success with the Patriots

Since Tom Terrific departed for Florida, New England have put up a somewhat interesting record.

In 37 NFL games played since his departure, Belichick’s franchise is exactly 18-19, just below .500, which is just about bang average.

Most teams would find that acceptable in the lower half of the NFL, but for a franchise that has turned success into a given over the last two decades, it's disastrous.

The first year without Tom Brady was a mess.

New England opted for Cam Newton as their QB1, and he was a shadow of his former self.

They waited a year to draft Jones, who has been impressive... to a point. When you watch Mac Jones play, you see a steady play-caller, an accurate passer and a good leader. Is there an X-Factor there, though?

This may sound incredibly disrespectful, given his two Super Bowl championships, but Mac Jones is a bit similar to Eli Manning, in that he can move the chains but he isn’t going to win a championship without an exceptional supporting cast.

He has youth on his side. He will improve and Belichick knows better than most how to create a team where a young QB thrives.

Unfortunately, the supporting cast isn’t there at the moment. We’re seeing too many games akin to Eli Manning’s later career with the New York Giants. When the team's quality drops, Jones can’t carry his troops over the line.

Tom Brady could. Even when the Patriots had down years in terms of quality, with him under center, he was able to keep the team competitive and in the playoff hunt.

“We just have no mental toughness. We go on the road and we have no mental toughness. We just can’t play the game we need to play it. I just can’t get this team to play the way we need to play. I just can’t do it.”

These were the words of a hugely frustrated Bill Belichick in a conversation with Brady during the 2009 season.

New England were rank, but TB12 was still able to take the team to a divisional title and a playoff spot. That’s how decisive he was in Foxboro.

You can’t replicate the Tom Brady experience

Tom Brady is a generationally unique competitor

Right from being selected in the sixth round of the draft to becoming the GOAT, you just can’t replicate the 45-year-old's career.

You can’t even make it sound believable to someone unless you use his name specifically.

The New England Patriots can’t find a new Tom Brady. The worrying thing is that they are still trying that trick with Mac Jones.

Nobody has the skill-set and sheer force of will to succeed like the Buccaneers' starting QB. Not only is he immensely focused on longevity and physical fitness, but he also had (has?) the drive to prove everyone wrong.

This combination of skill, good fortune and motivation are hard to find in one place, so it’s just about pointless looking for them in one place.

The Patriots have a respected coaching staff in place, one they could have afforded to go down a different route with.

Could a premier athlete in the style of Lamar Jackson have been recruited to offer the Pats a totally dynamic offense? It would have been worth a shot, instead of shoehorning Jones into Tom Brady’s offense.

That was never going to work, and the pressure he’s been under in year two so far can’t come as a surprise.

Coaches get so used to playbooks that it’s difficult to surprise them. The Pats have been running a similar offense for so long that coaches have seen it. As soon as you do that without a QB like Brady to give it a truly special touch, you’re in trouble. We’ve seen that at Gillette Stadium.

New England will find success again, but it has to be in a different way

In soccer, Manchester United’s version of Bill Belichick was Sir Alex Ferguson.

His longevity in his job as manager was aided by an ability to change and adapt. He did this by routinely freshening up his support staff with new approaches and ideas.

Telling Bill Belichick that he needs to change borders on nonsensical. He is arguably the greatest coach to ever grace the NFL. What would benefit him, though, is adding offensive coaches who could bring a new flavor to the offense.

The teams that succeed in the NFL in this era have mobile, explosive QBs. The Patriots are going to need to find one of their own to rise to the top once again.

Tom Brady can’t be replaced within the same system in which he thrived. The Patriots won’t get another QB who wins six Super Bowls through sheer force of will. It’s just not realistic.

But the franchise doesn’t stop without him.

There will be another great QB in Foxboro, even if he comes after Mac Jones. Belichick is too good a coach for things to continue in this vein, yet the chances are it will need to be a totally different style of player.

New England will need to be ready for such a change.