What I didn’t expect was Brady to be as timid as he was. I thought there would be more detailed analysis and X’s and O’s. I thought he’d be a little more aggressive. Brady should’ve been hammering Deshaun Watson throughout the game. He did not.

For example, on Cleveland’s first drive of the third quarter, Watson completely missed a wide open Amari Cooper on a short pass, throwing behind his wideout. This was Brady’s reaction: “Just, obviously, behind the sticks again and out of rhythm. You don’t play in the preseason and now you’re out there against a good defense that presents some challenges because you’re not really running the ball great.”

You shouldn’t need preseason to complete a five-yard pass to a wide-open guy. I would’ve liked some details here about what Watson saw, what Watson might have been doing with his feet, what could’ve caused him to miss a receiver who had nobody near him.

I think that will happen in the coming weeks as he gets more comfortable. Even if he’s Tom Brady, he needs a chance to get his feet wet.

A little later in the third quarter when the Browns were driving and running a second-and-4 play from Dallas’s 20-yard line, Brady circled Micah Parsons, which he seemed to really like to do throughout the game, and said, “You got a five-man protection, so you got an open edge here with Parsons. He’s gonna have to get rid of it quick.” Watson then got rid of it quick and completed a five-yard pass for a first touchdown.

That’s the good stuff right there.

When I interviewed Brady on the SI Media Podcast in June, he told me he was worried he might be too critical during telecasts. I got the impression Sunday that Brady was going out of his way to not be critical. He needs to let it fly. He can’t hold back. That doesn’t do Brady or the viewers any good.

I also thought Brady would be more entertaining and engage in more lighthearted banter with Burkhardt. Again, it’s his first time calling a game, he has a million things to worry about and learn, so it’s hard to expect him to yuck it up from the get-go. But a little humor here and there would go a long way.

Brady wasn’t annoying. He didn’t say anything ridiculous and embarrassing, à la Cris Collinsworth, who said a Matt Stafford completion may be “the throw of the year” in Week 1, while also calling it “redonkulous.”

PEAK Collinsworth pic.twitter.com/I3lmFpONN8

— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) September 9, 2024

Some other random thoughts on Brady’s big debut:

It didn’t help that he had an unwatchable game to broadcast. The game was over at halftime, the Browns were completely inept on offense and there wasn’t any strategy for Brady to get into.

Within five minutes of Brady’s debut, I got tweets saying Fox should bring back Olsen. It absolutely did not help Brady that Olsen was calling the Steelers-Falcons game that led into Cowboys-Browns and was giving his typical A-plus broadcast. The specter of Olsen is not going to help Brady.

When Brady did the intro with Burkhardt prior to kickoff, it felt a little weird to me because it feels Brady is actually too famous to be an analyst. Like I said, Brady isn’t just a sports star. He’s the rare athlete that EVERYBODY knows.

I know Brady has done a ton of practice games. I’m sure he’s had executives and production people pumping him with advice. He felt too rehearsed to me, especially in the first half. He should forget it all and just talk football as if he’s not on television.

I fully expect Brady to have a much better game in Week 2 when he calls, what I assume will be, the Saints-Cowboys game.

2. It seems like EVERYBODY has critiqued Brady over the past 24 hours. One person, however, that I did not expect to weigh in on the Fox analyst was RedZone host Scott Hanson.

But even Hanson got in on the action by calling out Brady for not being excited that Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey was attempting a 71-yard field goal (which ended up not happening).

Scott Hanson “Brady’s got to get more excited than that in the booth” pic.twitter.com/VK8QrskqHZ

— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 8, 2024

3. While Brady is getting all the hype, I couldn’t help but think of Bill Belichick. The former coach seemed to be the one person in the media who wasn’t buying into the Caleb Williams preseason hype and called out the first-round pick for being inaccurate.

Bill Belichick wasn’t impressed by Caleb Williams through his two preseason games with the Chicago Bears.

“Well, he wasn’t accurate, he was 10-for-20,” Belichick said. “There were a couple of highlight plays, but they weren’t that good.”

(🎥: @insidetheNFL) pic.twitter.com/3sKMBjrKn3

— Kinnu Singh (@ByKinnuSingh) September 5, 2024

Sure enough, Williams was awful Sunday, completing 14 of 29 passes for 93 yards against the Titans.

4. I would like to clarify this tweet for some of the people on X (formerly Twitter) who don’t understand nuance.

If the US Open and ABC/ESPN were smart, they’d schedule the men’s final for Monday at 5pm leading into the Monday Night Football game. https://t.co/8Lao2TWwA6

— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) September 8, 2024

There were many replies that said, “CBS tried to air the U.S. Open men’s final on a Monday and the ratings were bad” and “What if the match goes more than three hours.”

CBS did not air the men’s final leading into an NFL game. The point of my tweet was that ESPN would do a great job promoting the men’s final leading right into Monday Night Football.

The current setup has the men’s final going up against the NFL. The Jack Sinner–Taylor Fritz match started at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday. Just a totally dumb decision by whoever makes the schedule.

As for the match going more than three hours, that’s a very easy problem to solve. ESPN moves the match to ESPN2 while the NFL game starts on ESPN. If the match is compelling enough that it’s in the fourth or fifth hour, a decent amount of people will stick with it.

But airing on the first Sunday of the NFL season makes absolutely no sense.

In an ideal world, the U.S. Open would wrap up the weekend before the NFL season starts. But if it insists on airing during the first weekend of the NFL season, Monday is a better day than Sunday for the men’s final.

5. Loved this by CBS’s Adam Archuleta, who let out an “oh no” before the interception even happened as Broncos rookie Bo Nix threw an ill-advised pass that was picked off by the Seahawks.

*Broncos rookie QB Bo Nix lets the ball go*

“Oh no.” – Adam Archuleta

*Bo Nix pass intercepted by the Seahawks*

“You cannot attempt that pass in the National Football League and think that you’re gonna get away with it.” – Archuleta 🏈🎙️#NFL pic.twitter.com/KADtUtEDPh

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 8, 2024

6. I had a horrific day betting Sunday thanks to the disgusting Giants, who I knew were doomed once I saw their hideous throwback uniforms, and the Bengals, who destroyed what would’ve been a very profitable teaser.

So shoutout to WWE Undisputed Heavyweight champion Cody Rhodes, who also had a rough day picking games on Sunday. We’ll bounce back next week.