“Win Now”
July 9th, 2020
Super stress.
The pressure is on Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians.
This season is tough enough because of “The Sickness.” But add expectations from team suits, possibly players and certainly from fans thrown in along with unprecedented hype, and you have a pressure cooker situation at One Buc Palace.
Arians is in charge of taking the greatest quarterback of his time — in the sunset of his career — and molding the offense around his talents, or vice-versa, or finding a happy medium.
Arians, 67, will try to get Brady, soon-to-be 43, to carry this woebegone franchise to a level the team hasn’t reached in 18 years.
Matt Harmon of Yahoo! Sports doesn’t think any team is in a “win now” mode like the Bucs and that no coach has pressure on him this season like Arians.
It’s hard to remember a more win-now operation than the current iteration of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They have a 67-year-old head coach brought out of retirement, a soon-to-be 43-year-old quarterback, and a Hall of Fame tight end who also left the comforts of a post-playing career. The trio represents the most storied and well-known figures of the current Bucs. And they’re all likely taking this football thing on a year-to-year basis. It would be a total upset if they’re all in the picture by the 2022 NFL season. The “now” in win-now could not be any more clear.
It will be up to Bruce Arians to put together an offense that makes sense for all involved in order to quickly accomplish this goal. It’s going to be a fascinating exercise, especially given the unprecedented nature of this COVID-19 ravaged offseason. Unlike when he came to Tampa, his quarterback is not an ideal on-paper fit for the way Arians has always constructed offenses.
Oh, and remember the Super Bowl will be played at the Den of Depression in February. Suits at One Buc Palace have circled that game as a reachable goal this fall.
Nah, no pressure.
If Arians does get this team to a Super Bowl or even wins one, not only should he be a slam dunk for “Coach of the Year,” but Arians ought to get a bust in Canton.
If Arians can win a Lombardi here in Tampa, that will mark two rotten organizations he turned around, the Bucs and the Cardinals (though his teams in Arizona never got to a Super Bowl).
And if Arians can win a Super Bowl this season with all that he has on his plate, elements that he can control and cannot control, man, that’s what Joe would call coaching.
July 9th, 2020 at 12:21 am
Amen to that!
July 9th, 2020 at 12:49 am
Hope his ticker can take it!
July 9th, 2020 at 1:23 am
He definitely will get a bust in Tampa next to Gruden and the boys. I haven’t been this excited about a season except the season after we won the super bowl. I thought with our defense and chucky in year two we would unstoppable. I think sadly our Bucs coined to the mountain top and felt they accomplished everything and started feeling completed and proven. That’s what’s so amazing about the greatest champions they are never satisfied. Think about the inner fire of Belichick and Brady nine nine Super Bowls with 6 wins unbelievable. I’ll take the heart and mind of Brady over every q.b except a young Patrick Mahomes ll.
July 9th, 2020 at 3:53 am
Cool article and I agree. I also think that Licht should feel some pressure to get a proven running back, but I know better. 😜
July 9th, 2020 at 4:07 am
I remember watching George Foremanknock our Michael moorer for the championship. It was one of my favorite sports moments. I hope these old timers can pull one out of the hat.
July 9th, 2020 at 4:08 am
Licht should get a lifetime extension right now.
July 9th, 2020 at 5:36 am
Clean House- Moorer getting knocked out by big George was something else.
Absolutely WIN NOW. Is there any other way to play?!
July 9th, 2020 at 7:50 am
What happens if we don’t make the playoffs. Give Licht a lifetime extension.
July 9th, 2020 at 3:18 pm
All logical reasons validate this story.
However ONE thing has changed it all.
In ALL sports 2020 will be followed by a prominent *
July 9th, 2020 at 4:20 pm
The Bucs HAVE TO win a Super Bowl this year or next year.
Otherwise letting JW walk was a mistake.
Not the playoffs. SUPERBOWL. Rings and parades.
July 9th, 2020 at 4:39 pm
With baseball and basketball restructed schedules I don’t expect any different for the NFL. My guess is an eight or ten game schedule. Which without preseason these teams are going to be pretty sloppy. With teams like the bucs with a new quarterback its going to be tougher. At least Brady is working out with the receivers. Hopefully they will make the playoffs and make a run at that Superbowl. But it would not surprise me if they didn’t.
July 9th, 2020 at 8:41 pm
“…no coach has pressure on him this season like Arians.” Bullsheet. BA always has strived for prefection. At his age and after his stellar career, there is no pressure. Thats just stupid
!