Tom Brady was Bill Belichick's best player. Was Richard Seymour Belichick's best defender?

It's not as if Richard Seymour had to wait forever to get in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He is two years younger than a former teammate who is still playing.

But if you ask that former teammate, Tom Brady, a five-year sit for a defensive lineman of this fellow's grade is exorbitant.

At least, Brady conveyed as much in this Tweet on Jan. 19, 2021:

"I would love to see Richard Seymour inducted into the Pro Football HOF. Not only was he a dominant player but a team-first, selfless player who played championship football each and every week. He was a cornerstone of the Patriots dynasty."

Seymour's reply basically was, "Thanks, GOAT ... hope you win your seventh Super Bowl."

The exchange occurred when Brady was busy preparing to win a Super Bowl in his first year with the Buccaneers, having done so six times with New England, three times with Seymour as a teammate.

Seymour added a little inside joke about Brady bagging a seventh Super Bowl win, Tweeting, "If I wasn't held by two or three guys on the helmet catch, this would be No. 8 for you."

This touched on one reason Seymour didn't get to Canton until now.

Seymour and Brady were fellow Patriots on teams that won Super Bowls ending the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons. What would have been a fourth Super Bowl win, capping the 2007 season, would have put Seymour in the rare air of Mean Joe Greene, the Pittsburgh defensive tackle who was on four Super Bowl winners in the 1970s.

Is there any way Seymour, as a dominant defender with four rings, would not have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer?

The 2007 Patriots were something else, on Brady's side of the ball, and Seymour's. They beat Washington 52-7, Buffalo 56-10 and Pittsburgh 34-13. They led 20-0 at halftime against a Browns team that finished 10-6.

They had an 18-0 record going into Super Bowl XLII, against the Giants. And they had the lead.

With just over a minute left, Seymour seemed to pull the release chord on a confetti shower. On a third-and-5 from the New York 44. He powered through traffic and grabsies. He got his hands on Eli Manning. It would have been a sack had center Shaun O'Hara not pulled Seymour away from behind.

As Seymour laments, still, there was no flag.

The blatant hold allowed Manning to spin away to heave-and-hope position. Instead of fourth-and-12 on a Seymour sack, it was first-and-10 on a weird 32-yard gain by David Tyree — the helmet catch.

In the last of Seymour's 15 career postseason games, the Giants soon scored and secured a 17-14 win.

The next year might have been Seymour's best. He matched his career high in sacks. The defense carried the team to an 11-5 record, with Brady missing all but one game. The Patriots allowed a combined seven points in winning the last two games. But they missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker.

By then, Seymour had sewn up a spot on the All-Decade Team — he and Warren Sapp were the first-team defensive tackles; Michael Strahan and Dwight Freeney were the ends.

Seymour didn't make All-Pro in 2008, but he was "All-Al." Raiders czar Al Davis traded a first-round pick for Seymour. A first-round pick for a guy about to turn 30?

"Sometimes you've got to overpay to get what you want," Davis told the Contra Costa Times. "But I didn't overpay.

"I've always had my eye on Seymour. I've watched him for years. I never thought we'd get a shot at him."

The Raiders were in a losing cycle, and Davis didn't have long to live. Seymour made the Pro Bowl in two of the next three years, helping them go 8-8 twice.

The year Seymour departed New England, the Patriots had their worst record in years, then got blasted 33-14 by Baltimore in the wild-card round. Analyzing for ESPN, ex-Patriot Tedy Bruschi said, "Since Richard left, there hasn't been that presence on the defensive line. Richard got that pocket pushed, and that's what they've missed."

In 2000, the year before Seymour arrived, the Patriots went 5-11. With him as a rookie starter in 2001, they went 11-5. After their third Super Bowl win within Seymour's first four seasons, defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel left to be head coach in Cleveland.

At 6-foot-6, 300-plus pounds, with instincts and athleticism, Seymour might have been a beastly right end in a 4-3 scheme. He slugged it out on a three-man line in Crennel's 3-4, first as a nose man, later as a right end.

"It takes a special person to sacrifice so the outside linebackers can make plays," Crennel said.

Outside linebackers were New England's sacks leaders. Willie McGinest had five sacks in three postseason games in 2003. Mike Vrabel had 12.5 sacks for the 2007 team that posted a 16-0 regular season.

Seymour got sacks when he could. One came against Kurt Warner in a Super Bowl in his rookie year. He pocketed wins like candy. In his eight seasons, the Patriots' regular-season records were 11-5, 9-7, 14-2, 14-2, 10-6, 12-4, 16-0 and 11-5.

He was just 25 when he collected his third Super Bowl ring. At that point, he fit in with veteran players having strong careers.

Defensive lineman Anthony Pleasant, who had been a five-year starter for Belichick in Cleveland, joined the Patriots and started every game in Seymour's rookie year. Willie McGinest was a former top-five draft pick in his eighth Patriots season when Seymour arrived. Inside linebacker Ted Johnson, a starter on the Super Bowl winners in 2001, 2003 and 2004, was in his seventh year with New England in '01.

"I was a talented young kid coming in, but I was coming in to a veteran-laden team that showed me how to be a pro," Seymour said in a recent interview with The Canton Repository. "They taught me the nuances of the game.

"That first year, I got a kick out of carrying the older guys' pads and getting them donuts. In exchange, they shared their wisdom."

Vrabel, who had been a Pittsburgh backup for four years, jumped to the Patriots in 2001 and was Seymour's teammate for eight years.

"I got a lot more sacks than I probably should have because of Richard," Vrabel said.

Belichick built a powerhouse defensive line, starting with Seymour in 2001. The Patriots added Ty Warren with a No. 13 overall pick in 2003 and Vince Wilfork with a No. 21 pick in 2004. All three of them were established starters on the 18-1 team in 2007.

Seymour was the highest draft pick among them, and the best player. Yet, it took almost as long for him to get into the Patriots Hall of Fame (as a 2021 enshrinee) as it did for him to make the Hall of Fame in Canton.

Belichick opened up about Seymour upon his election to the Patriots Hall of Fame, saying:

"Richard had a tremendous skill set. Great length ... explosive ... very quick for his size ... very smart and very aware.

"He started his career at the nose, which was not really his best position, but we definitely needed him there in '01. But then we moved him back to his natural position of 5- and 3-technique.

"He played some at the nose in pass situations (as he did on the famous David Tyree play). But he was able to play mostly outside after we got Ted Washington and Keith Traylor and then Vince Wilfork.

"He certainly helped our linebackers. He either got penetration or tied up blockers. He was a disruptive force."

Seymour was succinct in his Patriots Hall of Fame speech, saying, "What took so damn long?"

No hard feelings. Seymour told  the Repository, "Coach Belichick has the greatest mind I've been around."

In Belichick's New England run, Seymour arguably was his best defensive player.

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Hall of Famer Richard Seymour led Patriots' defense in Super Bowl run