Bruce Arians And Voluntary OTAs
May 26th, 2021
Discusses missing players.
On Monday, as many as nine Bucs offensive players along with Tom Brady worked out at the New York Yankees’ minor league complex, a 25-minute walk (by Google Maps measurements) from One Buc Palace.
As far as Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians is concerned, it’s a world of football away.
Arians, after OTA practice yesterday, said he is in daily conversations with Brady about working out away from One Buc Palace.
Arians said he was going to hold out every Bucs starter from OTA practices this spring anyway. So Arians hoped the Bucs who stayed away, if they wanted to work out, would do so at One Buc Palace without coaches (if they so desired). There, the fields are designed for football, not baseball. Safety may be an issue with using facilities outside of One Buc Palace, Arians said.
When asked about backup quarterback Ryan Griffin’s Tuesday practice — he too worked out with Brady and Friends Monday — Arians said the work Griffin got in with him was much more valuable.
“It’s one thing to go over there [Yankees complex] and throw routes,” Arians said. “It’s another thing to have secondary guys blitzing and having to read stuff and get the ball out of your hand.”
In a perfect world, Arians is crossing his fingers that his players reassess and join in-person meetings and team-building activities. If they want to work out on a side practice field, that’s up to them, Arians said. If they want to go home, they can go home.
“I hope they change their mind,” Arians said.
Arians did stress yesterday he’s not against the players, he just wishes they would be part of OTAs and team activities in some way.
No Bucs starters were at voluntary OTAs practice yesterday, unless you want to stretch the definition and suggest running back Giovani Bernard is a starter. And even Bernard, like Griffin, was part of Brady’s workout clique Monday.
No, 2020 rookies who had impacts in the playoffs (Tristan Wirfs, Antoine Winfield, Tyler Johnson) were not there Tuesday. They still have never been a part of an NFL OTA practice.
But second-year running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn was at One Buc Palace.
Also yesterday, Joe noticed on Instagram, Ali Marpet, Cam Brate and foot-rubbing, car-littering Rob Gronkowski were working out with former Bucs receiver Yo Murphy, who runs a local fitness center, doing “lines,” running drills on the astroturf of a local community football field.
Bernard said yesterday he’s going to try to do both; attend OTAs at One Buc Palace and Brady’s passing picnic in the park.
“You want to have reps with as many quarterbacks as possible,” Bernard said.
In his first year with the Bucs after signing as a free agent this spring, Bernard said he considers himself a Tampa Bay rookie.
May 26th, 2021 at 12:13 am
Brady is gonna do what he wants.
Arians isn’t gonna stop him and that was a politically correct thing to say.
Whatever he did last year seemed to help in some way, so I wont be surprised if this is an every year thing until he retires.
Go Bucs. I love it.
May 26th, 2021 at 12:34 am
At least you’re meeting new guys in the building. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to practice at OBP.
May 26th, 2021 at 2:07 am
This is the first time I have questioned the influence that Brady might be having on the team.
Well actually the second time. The first was when I recently watched video of Brady admitting that he uses witchcraft, led by his “good witch” wife, to win football games.
May 26th, 2021 at 2:29 am
This will be common place across the NFL until a new agreement is in place with the players and owners.
There’s a clear disconnect.
I don’t know enough about it to have a strong opinion. But I do know…..
We won the SB with a brand new QB in a terribly disruptive OTA situation last year. This year should be more normal.
In BA I Trust!
May 26th, 2021 at 4:19 am
I have a bad feeling that this whole charade is gonna come back to bite us in the arse before the season is over. Last year ALL teams missed a bunch of TEAM practice opportunities because of COVID. This year only some teams (like the Bucs) are taking the ‘we don’t want to practice at team facilities with the coaches’ approach, and thus missing out on TEAM practice opportunities.
Granted the Bucs are coming off a Super Bowl win. And granted we’ve brought back virtually all our starters and that SHOULD certainly give us a leg up on the competition. But it’s easy to forget that the Bucs were 7-5 with only 4 games to go last season & had to ‘finish hot’ to even make it into the playoffs.
The goal this season better be to start faster. A LOT faster. And missing out on valuable TEAM practice opportunities doesn’t exactly help bring that goal to fruition.
May 26th, 2021 at 4:52 am
Much ado about nothing. It’s May. @BillyBucoff. You are correct. Brady hasn’t done OTAs since 2017 so I doubt he’s going to start now.
May 26th, 2021 at 5:38 am
It seems to me that practicing at OBP without coaches is a good compromise for this situation…….but WTFDIK……I’ll go with whatever Brady likes….he wouldn’t do anything to hurt himself, other players or the team.
May 26th, 2021 at 6:06 am
It seems like we talk about this every year, one way or another. Personally, I think it’s a tad overblown. These guys are “pros” and THIS is their job.
Yea, there’s value for the younger guys but what do vets get out of it?
Don’t forget, “VOLUNTARY”!
May 26th, 2021 at 7:30 am
Agree with you defense
May 26th, 2021 at 11:16 am
I still can’t believe the Bucs signed one of my favorite Bengals. Always gives 110%
May 26th, 2021 at 12:34 pm
Perhaps Brady’s use of his production company has something to do with not using OBP?
May 26th, 2021 at 1:18 pm
CMon TB. Why not take up Arians on his open invitation to take your picnic party to your home facility. Think of the impact on our younger players. The only negative would be the young rookies distraction looking out the corner of their eye at the future Hall of Famers at the other end of the field.