Tom Brady learned a lot in his long career as a superstar NFL quarterback. Most of it centered on how to play the quarterback position. He also learned how to be a leader and how to perform in high-pressure situations. He did all of that at the top level, which is why he has seven Super Bowl rings. However, that wasn’t the extent of his education about how the NFL works. Another lesson came regarding roster-building, from the most unexpected of places, too. That was the practice squad.
For those who don’t know, the practice squad is a collection of 16 players retained outside of the active roster who run the scout teams during practice. They mimic upcoming opponents from their schemes to how certain star players operate. It is an effective way to get starters prepared for games. Brady often noticed that several such players would perform really well in practice, leading him to think they needed an opportunity in actual games. Yet when they would finally get one, they’d often flounder. He explained the reasoning behind this on the Champion Mindset show sponsored by the UFC.
Tom Brady thinks most practice squad players are chasing easy paychecks.
“There’s 53 guys on the active roster and there’s now 15 guys on the practice squad. So there’s 68 players. But those practice squad players are important because if anybody on the active roster gets hurt, they can get elevated to the squad.”
“These scout team receivers would come in and practice with the scout team and they do really well. And I’d be watching. I’m like, ‘Man, we got to get that guy. Let’s get him up on offense. He’s making a lot of plays.’”
“Then all of a sudden, we’re like, ‘Hey man, you’re doing really well. You got to come over here and deal with the pressure of succeeding now that you have expectation.’”
“And these guys are like, they weren’t prepared for it. So whatever we saw in practice against where there was not a lot of pressure, now when they’re put in a situation where there’s an expectation for performance, they’ve never had to personally deal with that and then they fail.”
“And then what I realized was a lot of guys on those practice squads, they don’t want to be elevated to the roster.”
“They’re very happy living this life where they could tell their family and friends, which I have no problem with that. But the reality is a lot of guys don’t want the pressure of dealing with (the) top.”
Brady’s assessment proves the Chicago Bears correct.
Head coach Ben Johnson pretty much took over how the team would build the roster from the moment he arrived. Unsurprisingly, he made some changes to what priorities scouts would have regarding the types of players he wanted. At the top of the list was speed. He wanted guys at every position who could move well. However, another trait alongside that was competitiveness. Johnson wanted guys who lived, breathed, and dreamed football 24/7/365. Anything less was unacceptable.
“We’re looking for high-level competitors. Guys who, if you took football away, they’d really not know what to do with themselves.”
It appears the Bears head coach probably reached many of the same conclusions Tom Brady did. Practice squad players aren’t much use to your team as legitimate depth if most of them secretly don’t ever want to get promoted. That changes if you stack the group with highly competitive kids. Those are the type who go out of their way to work hard in practice, even to the point of showing up the starters. That is because they want it to be known that they will fight for an opportunity whenever it comes.
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Brady would’ve been that way.
One of his more famous stories came in his second training camp with the New England Patriots. He was running their scout team and ended up using eye manipulation and fakes against the starting defense. It both impressed and annoyed them. While Brady was never on the practice squad, it is fairly certain he would’ve approached scout team responsibilities with the same opportunistic mindset. He might be the low man on the totem pole, but it won’t stay that way forever if he has any say in it.
The Bears have made it their mission to find as many guys like that as possible. Most of them will never achieve great success in the NFL, but that isn’t the point. The goal is finding a handful of guys who can turn a practice squad spot into an eventual starting opportunity. People talk about star power when describing championship teams. In truth, it’s those who build great depth that often cross the finish line. The practice squad is an enormous part of that equation.
