And from what Ryan’s seen on film, the 43-year-old Brady, who has thrown 18 touchdown passes and just four interceptions this season, hasn’t lost a step from the player he was in New England.

“What I see in Tom Brady is Tom Brady. Like fine wine, he keeps getting better,” Ryan said Thursday. “Twenty years of experience, arguably, I think the best player to play the game, the best quarterback. He does everything he can to figure out the defense. He’s a great point guard in this league where he just distributes the ball to his playmakers.

"We have much respect for each other. To me, he’s the ultimate test as a player. He’s like the final boss in Mario or whatever game you might play when you’re on the last level and they have hammers and cannonballs and everything going off in the game. He presents every threat to you possible. You have to stay super locked in. As a competitor, I feel like he brings the best out in me because I know I have to be my best in order to compete with him. I love playing against him because it’s the greatest challenge in football, definitely mentally, and physically, as well.”

In his first season with Tampa, Brady has the Bucs at 5-2, good for first place in the NFC South. The NFC Offensive Player of the Month in October, Brady has seemingly found his groove with his new cast of supporting characters, including Mike Evans, Scotty Miller, Ronald Jones, and old friend Rob Gronkowski, among others.

Ryan explained that one of Brady’s biggest skills as a quarterback is knowing the strengths of those around him.

“I think the biggest thing to Tom Brady and the biggest thing I can tell guys is that it’s his guys. It’s the guys around Tom Brady that he knows how to utilize,” Ryan said. “We have to understand Mike Evans, we have to understand Gronkowski. We have to understand Scotty Miller, we have to understand Cameron Brate. We have to understand Ronald Jones, Leonard Fournette, LeSean McCoy. You go down the list, I can name the whole roster. We have to understand how he uses those guys because he uses all his players to his strengths.

“He has everyone playing well for him. They have a guy Scotty Miller, number 10, who’s running past everybody. Mike Evans, (Chris) Godwin, Gronk is back to old Gronk form. He brings the best out of his teammates. He is one of the greatest teammates I ever had. He makes everyone around him better and that’s what I see in Tampa, the same old Tom Brady to me and that’s excellence.”

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