This season the Bucs faced murders row from mid October till late November, then played the Girl Scouts the last four games.
Looking at the schedule in September or August you could see the narrative.
The truth is somewhere in between. Yes Brady had an unbelievable statistical season. He did, and it can’t be taken away.
He also struggled against legit defenses. If you call struggling putting up 23 to 28 points vs the usual 30 +, but there were struggles.
We can cite whatever deep ball stats we want as pro Brady people, and I’m not the only one who’s pro Brady, but the fact is that it takes one quarter of watching him under this system to tell its a bad fit for him. It is, and Arians has not adjusted, but rather choosen to validate his ideas based on amazing success against garbage teams.
What I take from Brady’s season is this.
He still clearly physically has it. He does. If you can’t see he’s throwing a good ball with zip then I dunno. Go watch Cam, or Sam Darnold or something.
Brady is like the 15th highest paid QB in the league. He’d have been here at a reasonable price, and he should still be here. BB should have been fired years ago. Before the Seahawks super bowl win, and right after ray rice busted those long runs in 09 or 10 whenever to knock us out of the playoffs.
You don’t let the best of all time walk because you can’t draft a team around him anymore. Belichick ignores physical talent for these guys who he thinks mentally he can “coach” up. I’m completely sick of it. At some point you need guys who can run, tackle, and out hit the other team. I’m so sick of hearing about BBs binkie. That’s a guy like Rex burkhead. Yes burkhead is great. We all love him. But he is a piece. An ancillary piece behind a core of blue chip players which have not been drafted in ten years.
I don’t care how many guys like that BB finds in round 10, (and yes I know burkhead was a FA, but you know what I mean), it does not make up for the lack of blue chip players he continually misses on every draft for the past ten years.
And y’all keep doubting Brady in these playoffs. Keep doubting. He’s bout to head the Bucs on a good run.
Jeez, there are some hot takes in this one. Respectfully, I've got to disagree with a lot of it. Yes, he struggled against "legit" defenses. By Defensive DVOA, the teams he lost to were 2nd (NO), 8th (CHI), 4th (LAR), and 22nd (KC). The teams he beat were 24th (CAR), 13th (Den), 20th (LAC), 17th (GB), 28th (LVR), 19th (NYG), 18th (MIN), 32nd (DET) and 14th (ATL). Hasn't beaten a top 10 defense all year. So that much we can agree on. Yes, he had an unbelievable statistical season. Considering his age, the circumstances of this season as a whole, and that his accomplishments are quite literally unprecedented in all of history, I'd definitely agree with that as well.
However, I've watched a few quarters of Brady's play under this system. It has not looked like a bad fit to me at all. He's attacking all levels of the field, and doing so with success. Whereas on the Pats in many cases based on scheme and personnel he just couldn't safely and realistically attack deep down the field, here he can, and he does so well. The truth of whether or not Arians can adjust will be seen on Saturday. The Nick Wrights of the world expect it to be a repeat of the 2nd NO game, with multiple ints, a passer rating way below 80, and a blowout win by his opponent. Considering his struggles against elite defenses, that could happen. It shouldn't, though, because they shouldn't be trying to pass much at all, and when they do, it should be play action, screens, and lateral throws designed to get the ball out of his hands and relying on their elite WRs to beat a defender to advance the ball. If he's consistently hanging in that pocket for 5 seconds on Saturday trying to force a deep ball, sure, I'll say Arians can't adjust. But so far to me, I've seen adjustments all season long, and especially good ones coming lately. We shall see though.
After the midway point is where you lose me entirely. You think BB should have been gone like a decade ago, and would rather we have not won 3 Superbowls or went to 4 in 5 years, because you don't think the coach that took us to 9 Superbowls and won 6 can coach. You say Arians is a bad fit, despite Brady being the most successful 1st year QB on a new team in the history of the NFL. Yet you seem to think without BB and with some other random coach we would still have won those Superbowls, despite the fact that year in and year out, Brady put up some stinkers in the playoffs, and was carried to victory anyway by the rest of the team and gameplan coached up by BB. Other than 2005, 2013, and 2017, Brady threw at least 1 int in the playoffs every year. Other than 2004, 2010, 2014, and 2017, Brady had a sub-80 Passer Rating game in the playoffs, every year. Some years, his bad play would sink us, like in 2012, when he threw for 1 TD and 2 Ints vs the Ravens, Passer Rating 62.3, and we got crushed, 16-26. Some years, he would play poorly and we would win anyway. Like in 2016, when he threw 2 TDs, 2 Ints, Passer Rating 68.6 vs Houston, and we still beat them 34-16, and would go on to win the Super Bowl.
It wasn't just Brady. you can be sick of it, considering the results he's obtained, I'm definitely not. And I can't help but marvel at the mental gymnastics. Brady has been terrible against top 10 defenses this year. Washington has a top 3 defense. You say Arians can't adjust, and it's a bad fit. Yet you think Brady is going to lead the Bucs on a good run? If he does, it will be because Arians adjusted. Brady is the GOAT, but he's not playing solo out there. You need a good head coach as well. Arians seems to be pretty good. Belichick is the GOAT.
