Patriots: Kevin Clark and Bill Simmons reveal surprise reason NE will miss Tom Brady

Kevin Clark broke down why the Patriots will miss Tom Brady in this bizarre 2020 season on the Bill Simmons Podcast.

Patriots fans have had to deal with a continuity shift at QB in 2020 for the first time since Roger Goodell mandated one a few years back.

Yes, Pats Nation is fine with Cam Newton fitting into Tom Brady’s previously-held space. Newton will give Josh McDaniels all-new tricks and the offensive freedom he hasn’t felt since a few scattered Jacoby Brissett games.

But perhaps 2020 was the exact wrong time for McDaniels to get a new toy?

Ringer NFL writer Kevin Clark joined the Bill Simmons Podcast this week to break down the wonky NFL season unlike any other which we’re about to receive, and he launched into a speech about why Patriots fans might’ve wanted Brady for one more season.

Clark believes continuity will be more important in 2020 than ever before, due to limited contact and complex playbooks.

"“If you have continuity,” Clark began, “you want to make things as complicated as possible. The teams that are gonna win this year are the teams that have been together four, five, six years, that almost have a sixth sense on where everybody’s gonna be, and they can run complicated schemes against a bunch of defenses that aren’t gonna be able to be complicated.”“So, if you’re the Falcons, and you have Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, or you’re the Saints, you’re gonna be able to get really complicated out there because you understand it and you’re gonna be able to own these defenses that are gonna be flat-footed. I’m never gonna bet against Tom Brady, but this would’ve been an amazing year for Josh McDaniels and Tom Brady to be together. Because they could just say, hey — if Gronk was back, whatever — say, ‘Hey, remember that play we ran in 2015? Let’s do it right now.’ And that’s going to be an advantage this year. This is going to be the continuity season. This is the veteran season.”"

Clark has long been an advocate of Newton, and even discussed his fit on the Patriots back in March, before we knew how long this pandemic was going to sprawl.

Don’t worry — both Simmons and Clark did discuss how excited Belichick will be to exploit an entirely different type of QB, and hypothesized he’ll be able to make it work.

But it remains interesting that the one year Pats Nation finally decided Brady’s weakening arm was worth jettisoning was the one year it would’ve really helped to have his ESP powers with the coaching staff still in the fold.

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