Tom Brady may be a new man in 2020.
Certainly, he made a major change by heading to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His new coach, Bruce Arians, is one of the more relaxed coaches in the league while Bill Belichick is one of the least relaxed coaches in the league. Brady’s supporting cast will be radically different, too, with the Buccaneers boasting an absurdly gifted group of receivers (Chris Godwin, Mike Evans) and more starting-caliber tight ends than they can field (Rob Gronkowski, O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate). It was bleak in New England for Brady in 2019: an injured Julian Edelman, an injured Mohamed Sanu and two rookies N’Keal Harry and Jakobi Meyers. The tight end position was basically a non-factor.
The passing offense in New England — largely focused on vertical routes — is very different than the one in Tampa, where Arians loves to get his receivers running vertical. The question with Brady, who will be 43 years old this season, is whether the quarterback will have the arm strength to get the ball downfield. His new quarterback coach Clyde Christensen has little doubt.
“Anybody who says he’s lost arm strength, all I know is I must have missed something,” Christensen told The Athletic’s Bob Kravitz. “Remember, they didn’t have those kinds of receivers (in New England) who could get deep. It wasn’t about anything that he couldn’t do. I thought he played last year at a high, high, high level, still light’s out. He comes here, we’ve got the two outside receivers (Chris Godwin and Mike Evans), you think back to what Peyton had in Denver and he goes out there and sets the NFL record for touchdown passes and reaches two Super Bowls, wins one. I think that’s very attractive to Tom. Peyton had fun at his second stop. He was able to turn that place around. I think Tom’s excited about what he can do with those two cats (Godwin and Evans).”
It will be fascinating to watch and see if the Buccaneers can reignite Brady’s career after one of his worst statistical seasons.
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