Tom Brady Proves He Is Still NFL's Most Clutch Player

This season has really put Tom Brady to the test, to say the least. We've heard it all before, but I'll tell you again. Wes Welker, Aaron Hernandez, Rob Gronkowski, Brandon Lloyd, and Danny Woodhead all either suit up for different teams, have been injured, or are incarcerated. On top of all of these pass catchers not playing a down for the Patriots this year, they have also went without Stevan Ridley, Danny Amendola, and Julian Edelman for periods of time. With that, the team has been forced to play rookies and undrafted free agents in major roles.

Most other quarterbacks would understandably collapse under these kind of conditions, but as we should all know by now, that's just not the way that Tom Brady does things. He's shown this year more than any that he can make something out of nothing. He's turned names like Kenbrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson into real receivers, and he's lead the team to a 5-1 record.

That most recent win was one of the more impressive that we've seen in awhile, and it gave us a reminder that Brady is still the most clutch player in the NFL, period. With their backs against the wall against one of the 3 remaining undefeated teams, Brady lead the team down the field even after drops (and an interception on a route that Edelman got turned around on) caused previous drives to falter. Yet again, we were seeing him work his magic, and with under 15 seconds to go inside the Saints red zone, you just had a feeling that he was going to make something happen, like he always does.

If you are a Patriots fan, even after all of the struggles of the offense this year, you still had to believe that he was going to get it done. I mean, come on, this is the man who up until that point has had 38 game-winning drives and 27 fourth quarter comebacks. As we all saw, with about 10 seconds left on the clock, Brady heaved a perfect strike to the back of the end zone and found the undrafted rookie Thompkins to down the Saints.

At this point in his career, there's no one that can rival his late game heroics. Peyton Manning may be a great regular season quarterback, but time and time again, he's come up short when it means the most (and often against Brady's Patriots). Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees have each won a Super Bowl, but their resume does not have anywhere near the amount of accolades as Brady. You could even go down the line to the young guns like Andrew Luck (he's getting there), Robert Griffin, Cam Newton, and Russell Wilson, but they are just not on Brady's level in crunch time.

Even though Brady hasn't won a Super Bowl in quite a long time by NFL standards, he's bound to get another one by the end of his career. With the way he plays in the clutch, there's going to be no denying him.

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