If Tom Brady leads the Patriots to a win Sunday, he will join one of the NFL’s most select groups for guys behind center. A win would mean Brady would have four Super Bowl wins as a starting quarterback, joining Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw.
There is an endless search for the can’t-miss formula to find a quarterback like any of those three in any NFL draft. Brady, Montana and Bradshaw represent the drastically different paths to success at the NFL’s most-demanding job.
Bradshaw was the consensus No. 1 prospect in the 1970 draft. The Steelers won a coin flip with the Chicago Bears — both teams finished 1-13 the year before — and selected Bradshaw with the top pick.
The Bears went on to trade the No. 2 pick to the Packers, who selected Notre Dame defensive tackle Mike McCoy. Bradshaw was the only quarterback taken in the first round of that draft. The second was San Diego State quarterback Dennis Shaw, whom the Bills selected in the second round.
But the top pick overall, much as the Colts are expected to use to select Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck in April, and much as the Colts used to select Peyton Manning in April 1998, is the fast track to a franchise quarterback.
Then there is the midround pick, like Montana. He was the fourth quarterback taken in the 1979 draft, behind Jack Thompson, Phil Simms and Steve Fuller, who were all selected in the first round that year.
Some scouts weren’t enthused about Montana’s size or his arm strength, but he fit perfectly into Bill Walsh’s vision of what the West Coast offense could do in the NFL. It was a scouting victory, the spot-on projection of a prospect into a scheme-specific job a team has waiting for him.
Then there is Brady, a player who showed flashes of what was to come during his career at Michigan, but not consistently.
Brady was the 199th pick in the 2000 draft, and some with the Patriots say at the time, when that sixth-round pick came up, the team was considering Brady as well as Tim Rattay with the pick.
When New England did select Brady, he was the seventh quarterback taken in a draft that was not considered a deep one at the position. Chad Pennington was the only quarterback selected in the first round that year — 18th to the Jets. No quarterbacks were taken in the second round, with Giovanni Carmazzi and Chris Redman in the third round, Tee Martin in the fifth round and Marc Bulger and Spergon Wynn going before Brady in the sixth round.
Brady entered his first season fourth on the depth chart at the position, and started in a Super Bowl after his second season. The rest is history, and still is being made into history.
Brady was asked this past week if that draft remained a motivating factor to him, and he offered a glimpse of why he constructed himself into one of the game’s all-time greats.
“I don’t think it’s just that 2000 NFL draft,” he said. “What you’re always trying to do as an athlete is prove it to yourself. You go through a college career and think you do a decent job — not that you get overlooked, it’s just that there are other guys who they feel can do a better job — so you just keep working hard, you just keep believing in yourself and looking for your opportunity. … Life is about taking advantage of opportunities, and you never know when you’re going to get them. You have to be prepared to take advantage when you get them. You try to go out there and be confident in yourself so you can inspire confidence in others.
“I always tell young players, ‘How do you expect me to be confident in you when I look at you and see that you’re not confident in yourself?’ You’re always bringing that level of confidence, so guys look at you and say, ‘I know he’s going to get it done, so this is how I’m going to prepare myself.’ “
Three quarterbacks, three different answers to pro football’s toughest question.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
