Houston Texans: Is Tom Savage The Next Tom Brady?
By Louis Roesch
Is Houston Texans quarterback Tom Savage the next Tom Brady?
Is Houston Texans quarterback Tom Savage the next Tom Brady?
No seriously, is Savage the next Brady?
Come on, get up off the floor and quit laughing.
It’s possible isn’t it? Somebody has to replace Brady as the best in the game.
Why not Savage? After all, both of them have some striking similarities.
Let’s just start with the peripheries:
Brady stands 6’4″ and weighs in at 225 pounds.
Savage measures up at 6’4″ and a solid 230 pounds.
Both were mid-round draft picks. Brady, the University of Michigan grad, was the 199th pick in the 6th round of the 2000 NFL draft.
Brady was the New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s first quarterback selection.
Savage (#135, 4th round) was Texans head coach Bill O’Brien‘s first quarterback selection and remains his only signal caller draft pick in Houston.
Both were drafted following their teams drafting a tight and guard ahead of them. The Patriots in fact picked two offensive tackles, a guard, running back and tight end before Brady.
Three of the picks made the 2001 roster along with Brady.
As for Savage, three of the picks ahead of him are still on the roster and key pieces to the 2016 team.
Prior to being named the starter of the Houston Texans offense, Savage had had just one appearance as an NFL quarterback in the regular season just as Brady did before he entered for the injured Drew Bledsoe.
Brady and Savage were then both named starters in the team’s next game.
Brady has never looked back and who knows Savage may not either.
Neither were stellar in their first pro appearance. Savage performed better in his second pro game than Brady did in his.
Albeit, Savage had more time to play with considering he nearly 50 minutes to make things happen while Brady had only barely over two minutes against the Jets.
Savage ended his relief appearance for Houston’s $72 million back-up by completing 23-of-36 for 260 yards.
Brady, on the other hand, in the game’s final series in which he replaced Bledsoe back in 2001 finished 5-for-10 for 46 yards.
Savage bounced around in college before settling at Pittsburgh because of injury and ego while Brady went 20-5 in his two plus seasons at the helm of the Michigan offense.
Houston’s latest field general, the former high school football stat at Cardinal O’Hara High in Springfield, Penn., finished his college career with numbers equal to if not better than Brady and the Michigan Wolverines.
Savage completed 56.8 percent of collegiate throws for 5,670 yards with 37 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.
Meanwhile, Brady better than a decade earlier had led Michigan to a national Top 10 ranking in 1999, including a win over rival Ohio State with a career completion percentage of 61.9 percent, throwing for 4,773 yards, 30 touchdowns to 17 interceptions.
Only 119 attempts separate the numbers on these two quarterbacks throughout their college career.
The ultimate decision was made at approximately 2:37 p.m. CST, where O’Brien tapped Savage as the Texans’ top signal-caller.
It was move that just some 13 months ago, seemed highly unlikely.
Could it be that that announcement leads to the next Tom Brady?
After all they are both named Tom.
We’ll see what happens.