The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their fans may be dealing with social-distancing and a global pandemic like the rest of us, but they can at least celebrate the fact that when football returns this fall (hopefully) they’ll have the greatest quarterback of all time taking the field in a Bucs jersey.
Six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady ended his historic 20-year run with the New England Patriots last week before officially signing his Bucs contract on Friday. Brady will now take over an offense that ranked third in the league in scoring last season, averaging 28.6 points per game.
While the prospect of Brady throwing deep passes to Mike Evans and Chis Godwin has fantasy football owners and Madden gamers salivating, it might not be all sunshine and rainbows for Brady, who will be 43 by the time the 2020 season rolls around.
Mike Reiss of ESPN wrote a piece over the weekend examining the state of the Patriots post-Brady. Reiss talked about how Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is looking to do more of a reboot than rebuild in New England. As Reiss put it, the Patriots will pay off some bills this season (nearly $23 million in dead cap space) before having close to $100 million in cap space in 2021. So, in his mind, the team will be fine.
But, when Reiss examines Brady’s move to Tampa, he has a word of caution all fans should listen to. Reiss thinks Brady will do great things in Tampa Bay, but he notes that quarterbacks in Bruce Arians’ offense often taking a pounding. He worries Brady may in line for such an experience.
Per Reiss:
“Arians’ offenses in Pittsburgh (2007-2011), Indianapolis (2012), Arizona (2013-2017) and Tampa Bay (2019) surrendered 508 quarterback sacks. In that same time period (with Brady’s lost season in 2008 and Arians’ 2018 season on the sideline canceling each other out), Brady was sacked 318 times in New England (also factor in Brady missing four games in 2016 because of suspension). Surely, there will be some adaptation to ensure Brady isn’t pounded into submission, but the point is worthy of note.”
The Bucs’ offensive line allowed Jameis Winston to be sacked 47 times last season, while Brady was only sacked 27 times in New England. Reiss notes that Arians’ plays calling for down-field shots means the quarterback often holds the ball longer than usual, hence the inflated sack numbers.
Still, when you are paying Brady the big bucks, you’re going to want to make sure he stays upright as much as possible.
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