It’s ironic that Tom Brady would immediately jump on board FOX’s top television team to begin his career as a commentator on NFL broadcasts.

As anyone who’s ever listened to a game in which Brady played knows, his path to quarterbacking stardom wasn’t exactly smooth. At Michigan, Brady outperformed super-recruit Drew Henson, but Wolverine coach Lloyd Carr was blinded by Henson’s pedigree and split time between the two.

Of course, Brady was the Patriots’ sixth-round pick in the NFL, sitting out his first season and needing an injury to Drew Bledsoe to get him on the field. Being forced to prove himself helped him become the best player in NFL history.

None of that happens on television.

FOX wanted him so badly that they signed him before his active career was over and waited until he was out for a year in 2023. At the time, Greg Olsen was the best commentator and as it turns out, he is good at it.

But the former tight end has now been demoted to the No. 2 team with Brady on board. Olsen is better than Brady, but like Michigan with Henson, FOX was blindsided by Brady’s star power.

The problem with Brady is simple. Because he’s Tom Brady, FOX had to pay him a lot — 10 years, $375 million — and if they’re paying him that much, they can’t really put him in a Giants vs. Commanders game.

The funny thing about the money commentators get paid is that they have very little influence on which game someone watches or if they watch at all. This isn’t like choosing between Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon. People would watch their favorite team, a game they had money for or a great matchup, even if the color commentator was your uncle doing a Donald Duck impersonation.

Most fans don’t know who’s on the broadcast until they turn on the game. Brady’s debut may have been the exception to that rule, given how much it was hyped and how much he’s getting paid for it. But the novelty has probably worn off by now.

But to those who did watch the Cowboys and Browns, Brady sounded like a guy who should be on FOX’s second or third team. That’s not an insult, and he wasn’t bad. He just didn’t sound comfortable yet.

It’s a tough job. It takes an innate sense of knowing when to jump in and how much to say in a short period of time without leaving too much silence or talking over the commentator. It’s more like improvisational comedy than natural conversation. It’s harder for athletes to understand where the sweet spot is between being too rudimentary or too technical for the audience.

It all takes practice and repetition. Calling pre-recorded games or live games without an audience is helpful, but it’s like a quarterback practicing with a red shirt on. Until there’s a pass rush or an audience, it doesn’t really simulate the real thing.

Brady’s greatest strength was analyzing a replay. He felt like he had practiced it and explained well what he was seeing and what it meant. On the last play of the first quarter, he quickly estimated that Micah Parsons was in position to tackle Deshaun Watson moments before Parsons did.

When he wasn’t sure, Brady smartly chose to hesitate rather than talk it out. Other than a few “Wows” on big plays while Kevin Burkhardt was talking, he didn’t let things get in his way. Overall, he got better as the game went on.

But he still has a long way to go before he’s part of a top team. He sounded (understandably) nervous and had a cadence full of strange pauses. He repeated himself and talked too much about effort, juice and fire instead of actual analysis and hasn’t figured out where to insert his own experience and stories into the broadcast.

Notably, he stuttered when put in a position where it would make sense to criticize either quarterback — Dak Prescott’s struggles in the playoffs and Deshaun Watson’s miserable performance in Cleveland — which was a concern for Brady before he ever hit the airwaves.

Kevin Burkhardt was good at trying to mentor Brady, asking him smart questions and humanizing him by teasing him about the Tostitos commercial featuring Brady that aired during a break in the action.

It will be interesting to see how Brady improves from Week 1 to Week 2, but the real question is how good he can get before FOX has him on the Super Bowl broadcast in February. He has a lot of time and a long way to go.

To follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter on @MattVautour424.