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The NFL Draft isn't the solution for struggling teams. According to Tom Brady, the 199th pick of the 2000 draft, it's merely the first step in building a team.
'It's one thing to draft them,' Brady told the Rushmore on X podcast in a recent episode that also included former rival Peyton Manning. 'Then you've got to develop.'
Once the highlight of the NFL's off-season calendar, the annual draft has evolved into a year-long news story. Many selected players celebrate their entrance into the league by sharing a bro hug with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as throngs of fans celebrate, often times, as if they've just won the Super Bowl.
But as Brady stressed on the podcast, the draft isn't the goal.
'More important to me is develop,' he said. 'We had I think the most overrated weekend of the NFL calendar, the NFL draft. Because 95 percent of these guys won't make meaningful contributions in their first year. Most of these guys will make meaningful contributions in the 2026 season.'
'What do you do on Day 2?' Brady said. 'How am I going to prepare myself?'
Brady was famously a skinny quarterback out of Michigan at the 2000 scouting combine
The NFL Draft isn't the solution for struggling teams. According to Tom Brady , the 199th pick of the 2000 draft, it's merely the first step in building a team, he told a podcast recently
Brady is, of course, among the best examples of player development in NFL history.
He slid in the 2000 NFL Draft after struggling to win the starting job at Michigan from highly touted two-sport star Drew Henson. Then, after going in the sixth round behind forgettable quarterbacks like Spergon Wynn and Tee Martin, Brady sat a year behind Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Bledsoe in New England.
Although fans couldn't see it at the time, Brady was making significant strikes on the practice field and in the film room, where he had the support of Bledsoe, Patriots coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis.
So when he was forced into duty when Bledsoe went down in 2001, Brady was remarkably seasoned for a backup.
Brady would go onto to lead the Patriots to their first Super Bowl win that season — the first of seven Lombardi trophies in his career. Meanwhile, first-overall picks like JaMarcus Russell and David Carr struggled to make an impact in the league amid heightened expectations.
Manning, another first-overall pick, happened to win a pair of Super Bowls.
