In Tom Brady’s first two NFL starts, he threw zero touchdowns, completed 53 percent of his passes for an average of 127 yards per game, recorded five sacks, and split one win and one loss. He played like a rookie NFL starter who was just trying to move the sticks, stay out of the way of his running game, and do what he was told as he found his groove.

That frame of reference — how he began his last job as quarterback — is something to keep in mind as he takes on his next job. Because it started in similar fashion Sunday, with a broadcasting performance that showed a mix of potential, inexperience, awkwardness … and, by the end of the endeavor, a clear improvement that suggests Brady is going to thrive in this new frontier.

Of course, it didn’t come without a flood of fan opinions on social media — many of which underscored a predictable reality: If you hated Brady as a player, you’ll probably find reasons to hate him as a broadcaster. And if you liked him as a player, you’ll probably give him the early benefit of the doubt as he finds a way to live up to Fox’s 10-year, $375 million contract.

It certainly didn’t take long to see what Fox was investing in, starting with Brady’s arrival at his game — a less-than-stellar opener between the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns (we’ll get to that later). I can’t remember the last time I saw an announcer enter a stadium as if he were still a star quarterback. But Brady got the kind of star treatment he enjoyed as a player, with the NFL’s social media accounts running a clip of him arriving in a sharply tailored suit and declaring, “First day on the new job” alongside a goat emoji.

Fox rolled out the red carpet, too, with a commercial celebrating Brady’s arrival at the network, featuring him talking to younger versions of himself and declaring that he’d be committed to proving the doubters wrong in this job, too. By the time the show got underway and production cut to a booth shot of Brady and play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt, you could sense the gravity of the moment Fox was going for. But you could also sense the awkwardness of Brady adjusting to a new role.

What struck Brady when you saw and heard him as a broadcaster is that he’s already a brand. We know him in more ways than one. We’ve lived through decades of his football career, with tens of thousands of published moments that have formed a deep well of what we thought of him. We’ve also absorbed a tremendous amount of coverage of his fame and personal life, his TB12 lifestyle sales pitch and growing empire on social media and in Hollywood. He’s been a star. And now he’s doing a very mortal job as a broadcast analyst.

The reason that’s important is that it conflicts with how he presents himself as an analyst. Expectations are high from the start. So when Brady suddenly appeared on camera Sunday with a forced, toothy smile — as much a staple of broadcasting attire as a suit and tie — it immediately felt a little manufactured. And it is.

Many NFL broadcasts are manicured and produced to death in a relentless (and ironic) search for authentic moments. That’s what makes the best broadcast teams so great. They navigate the forced nature of overproduction and still find ways to interact like real people instead of manufactured talent.

That’s what Brady needs to develop. Just like all the other great announcers who came before him. The only problem: He walks into this job with a huge salary and huge expectations — and the lingering reality that Fox has ousted a top-tier talent in Greg Olsen to make room for Brady.

Brady’s start should have been perfect or revelatory to live up to the hype he brings to the table. And it wasn’t. He didn’t provide the kind of sharp analysis that Olsen developed over several years. He didn’t come out of the box and consistently tip plays like Tony Romo. And he didn’t offer sharp criticism like Troy Aikman or Cris Collinsworth. Instead, Brady spent the broadcast staying in his lane and letting Burkhardt play point guard as he became more comfortable.

The result was an awkward start, as Brady tried to find a comfortable rhythm and when to give himself a point. Often, Burkhardt would present Brady with a talking point to force him to analyze. There were some awkward pauses and some obvious analysis (“It’s hard to gain 10 yards in the NFL. It’s really hard to gain 15 yards. It’s really, really hard to gain 20 yards.”) At one point, a booth shot caught Brady trying to get a fist bump from rules analyst Mike Pereira, who wasn’t paying attention and left Brady hanging awkwardly for a few seconds.

Even in a lopsided 33-17 Cowboys victory, there were some unplanned moments of levity, such as when Burkhardt asked Pereira if he had made Brady carry his bags as the broadcast rookie. Pereira — who was an NFL official from 1996 to 2010 — quipped back with a line that referenced the infamous complaint that Brady was protected by officials during his career: “I’ll tell you, we protected him on the field, so now we protect him with the bags.” To which Brady replied, “I’ve enjoyed that protection over the years.”

There were times when it seemed clear that Brady was not present at the mid-week production meetings that he is not allowed to attend as a part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. He seemed to miss some of the typical anecdotes and personal interactions that flow from those meetings. Brady was also mostly mild in his criticism of specific players or obvious mistakes in the game.

Clearly, there’s room to grow. But even his first game was a sign that it can happen, as he seemed to get more comfortable injecting analysis as the game wore on. His cadence improved. The odd pauses and half-sentences became less frequent. And he also gave Burkhardt plenty of room in the booth to do his job, never taking on calls and rarely talking over Burkhardt’s. There were bright spots in his analysis, too, like when he called out an open tight end while a play was live, essentially indicating that Browns QB Deshaun Watson missed an open man. Early in the game, he also caught Cowboys QB Dak Prescott changing the play at the line of scrimmage on his touchdown pass to Brandin Cooks, making for a convincing close-up of Prescott on a replay.

Taken for what it was — the first game in a projected decade-long campaign with Fox — it was a solid debut. Like Brady’s other forays into social media and the Hollywood spotlight, he’ll likely get better and more authentic as he grows more comfortable. Whether that will ultimately translate into developing the instincts to wield a sharp edge when needed remains to be seen. But if his football career is any indication, it’s coming. At a faster pace, and en route to higher peaks than we ever expected.