Watch: Alex Smith rips Tom Brady's controversial comments

Last week, Brady said he saw a lot of “mediocrity” in today’s NFL. Smith disagreed, beginning by noting that Brady hasn’t even been retired a year and “just won a Super Bowl in the current game.” Then Smith took aim at the weak AFC East division in Brady’s era — one that contained all the other men on his panel.

“My biggest complaint to this and no offense to the three of you guys,” Smith said to Brady’s former New England teammates Tedy Bruschi and Randy Moss, who looked like they took offense. “He played in the most uncompetitive division in NFL history.”

As Smith continued, former New York Jets and Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan started playfully wincing and shaking his head. Having coached in Brady’s division for eight years, Ryan was personally responsible for some of the lack of competitiveness. But Smith kept going.

“I mean, you come out of training camp in the biggest cupcake division, you got a ticket to the playoffs right away,” Smith continued, twisting the knife on his colleagues. “Talk about mediocrity!”

To be fair, Ryan did defeat Brady’s Patriots in the playoffs after the 2010 season, leading to one of the most memorable postgame interviews of all time from Bart Scott.

Brady may be wrong about the modern NFL, but he certainly made the “Countdown” set more competitive.