When Tom Brady signed with the Buccaneers last season, it was a rocky relationship with head coach Bruce Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich for a while. Brady had always benefited from pre-snap motion with the Patriots, but it wasn’t something Arians was interested in. This caused some early schematic schisms and rough moments where Brady and his new receivers were decidedly not on the same page.
Bruce Arians on pre-snap motion pic.twitter.com/JYYKox0hRL
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) December 3, 2020
But as the season went along, things got better. From Weeks 1-12, per Football Outsiders, the Bucs used motion on 46.4% of their plays, 13th in the league, though their yards per play with it was 6.5, and 4.9 without.
From Weeks 14-17, Tampa Bay went with motion on 56.6% of their plays, good for sixth in the league, and averaged 8.0 yards per play with it, and 6.1 without. Two primary reasons the Bucs stood at a stagnant 7-5 before their Week 13 bye, and came back to win their last four regular-season games.
Arians and Leftwich got even trickier in the postseason, as the Bucs used play-action on 28.5% of their plays, averaging 9.7 yards per play with it, and 6.1 without. Motion was more of a factor as well — 60.8% of their postseason plays featured motion, and though they had the same yards per play with and without it (5.7), it certainly seemed that everyone was finally reading the same playbook.
How motion and play-action are a lethal combination for Tom Brady and the Buccaneers
On Brady’s first touchdown of the 2021 season, left-to-right motion from receiver Chris Godwin gave Brady the man coverage indicator, and created an opening for Godwin to take in the five-yard pass.
Tom Brady ➡️ Chris Godwin
The first points of the 2021 season 🙌
pic.twitter.com/NrXDONqVsk— PFF (@PFF) September 10, 2021
When you make things easier for the greatest quarterback of all time, that’s a good thing.