The Tampa Bay Buccaneers boast the league’s best passing attack thanks to Pro Bowl receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. And with six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady now heading this offense, the Bucs could put up historic numbers in 2020.
The Bucs’ emphasis on the passing game shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, considering Bruce Arians has been known to take the deep shots more often than not. In a recent piece talking about how Arians can reignite Brady’s fire, Jenna Laine of ESPN spoke with former Cleveland Browns quarterback Tim Couch, who had Arians as his offensive coordinator from 2001-2003. The former number one overall pick out of Kentucky had plenty to say about his former OC and what Brady can expect playing in an Arians offense.
Per Couch:
“Bruce always says, ‘Let’s go touchdown to checkdown. Let’s read the field deep to short. You can’t throw the ball deep late, so obviously you’ve gotta take your shot if it’s there. If you get one-on-one coverage and you don’t take the shot, you’re gonna come off [the field, onto] the sideline and he’s gonna yell at you, because he wants you to throw it down the field. … A lot of coaches, they don’t want you to throw it deep. Long incompletions are kind of frowned upon and coaches don’t like that, but Bruce wants to take those shots.”
The biggest question mark swirling around Brady is whether or not he has the arm strength to get the ball deep to his receivers. Remember, he will be 43 years old by the time the season starts. The good news, though, is that according to ESPN Stats & Information, Brady threw seven touchdown passes of 20 or more air yards last year, his most since 2006. And, he won’t have to worry about throwing in the cold New England air anymore.
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