Tom Brady remembers the beginning of Randy Moss’ time with the New England Patriots much differently than the way history remembers the end result.
Brady’s retelling of the summer before that season adds a much better detail: The Patriots apparently did not know right away whether they had landed the old Moss, the Oakland version of Moss or something in between.
“He comes into OTAs, and he wasn’t in the best of shape,” Brady said during an appearance on the New Heights podcast. “He probably had a few years in Oakland where he wasn’t the most motivated, so you didn’t get the best out of him.”
Moss’ Patriots tenure is remembered as an obvious success because the production was so overwhelming.
The Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season. Brady threw 50 touchdown passes, and Moss caught 23 of them, setting an NFL single-season record.
Before the regular season started, though, New England was taking a real swing on a player whose value had dropped dramatically.
The Patriots acquired Moss from the Oakland Raiders for a fourth-round pick, and The Washington Post described Moss at the time as an “fading star.” He was coming off a 2006 season in which he had 42 catches for 553 yards and three touchdowns, all career lows at the time.
Brady Had Questions Before the Answer
Brady said Moss’ early OTA work did not immediately erase those questions.
“He’s kind of getting guarded by guys in OTAs he shouldn’t get guarded by,” Brady said. “And I’m kind of like, when is he going to turn it on.”
So Brady was a part of Moss’ doubters at this point.
Then training camp arrived, and the picture changed.
“We get to training camp, and we run the conditioning test,” Brady said. “And Randy comes; he takes his shirt off, [and] he’s lean, like in shape. He’s running the conditioning test like a deer.”
That version of Moss was closer to the player New England hoped it had stolen from the Raiders. The burst and field-stretching threat was still there.
Then came the next scare.
Brady said the Patriots ran a flea flicker in the second week of training camp, with Moss as the intended receiver. Brady said he threw the ball “literally as far as I can,” only for Moss to open up, reach out and grab his hamstring.
“So he misses the rest of training camp,” Brady said.
The feeling of absolute disaster struck, leaving the Patriots in a vulnerable spot. They had seen enough to believe the upside was still enormous, but not enough to know exactly what they would get once games counted.
Week 1 Changed the Whole Story
“Week 1, we still don’t know what Randy can do,” Brady said.
The regular season started, and the answer came fast.
In his Patriots debut against the New York Jets, Moss had nine catches for 183 yards and a touchdown in a 38-14 win. Brady finished 22-of-28 passing for 297 yards and three touchdowns in the same game.
That performance turned the uncertainty of the summer into something else entirely. Moss was still capable of changing the outlook of a game and ultimately the complexion of an entire offense and team.
From there, the season became historic.
Moss finished 2007 with 98 catches for 1,493 yards and 23 touchdowns. His 23 touchdown receptions broke the NFL single-season record, and his 1,493 receiving yards set a Patriots franchise record.
New England did not simply plug Moss into the offense and know everything would work. The Patriots waited through a sluggish OTA start, a training camp flash, a hamstring injury and a Week 1 unknown.
Then Moss took the field and made the gamble look like one of the easiest decisions the franchise ever made.
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