You’ve undoubtedly heard the maxim a thousand times, but at the risk of saying it once more: football is the ultimate team sport. Even the greatest players in NFL history have often had the good fortune of being surrounded by other guys who were considered to be among the game’s greats.
The same can be said for quarterback Tom Brady. Virtually nobody can question his status as the NFL’s “Greatest of all time” (GOAT), but it’s not like he did it alone. After all, look at the track record of players head coach Bill Belichick surrounded him with.
To that end, we wanted to rank the best players that Brady played with in New England, and is now playing with in Tampa Bay. So, here is our list of Tom Brady’s 25 greatest teammates, past and present.
25. Deion Branch
Wide receiver Deion Branch proved that when you perform your best on the biggest stage, that’s when you really become a household name. Despite not earning any Pro Bowl or All-Pro designations over the course of his career, everyone remembers Branch for the fact that he caught 11 passes for 133 yards in Super Bowl XXXIX, becoming the first player to earn the game’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award since some guy named Jerry Rice did it way back in 1989.
Branch tied a Super Bowl record with 11 catches for 133 yards. He was named Super Bowl MVP, the first wide receiver to do so since 1989. To date, Branch currently ranks 10th all-time in Patriots history, with 328 receptions as a member of the team.
