Bruce Arians, Jason Licht Not Getting Enough Credit?
July 30th, 2021
Argues Tom Brady > Bruce Arians.
In New England, one of the best bar arguments isn’t who was the best Red Sox hitter, Ted Williams or Carl Yastrzemski, it’s who should receive the bulk of the credit for the Belicheats dynasty, Bill Belicheat or Tom Brady?
The knee-jerk response is Brady because once he left the Belicheats crumbled and Brady won a Super Bowl for his new team, the Bucs.
Screamin’ Stephen A. Smith of BSPN’s “First Dump” argued in a recent airing that there is no such argument between Bucco Bruce Arians and Brady. It’s Brady, SAS said.
SAS also said it was Brady behind the Bucs getting foot-rubbing, car-littering Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown, and he influential in Playoff Lenny coming to Tampa Bay.
You can make a very fair argument that Gronk and Brown and perhaps Playoff Lenny wouldn’t be here if not for Brady. However, building the team and coaching the team up, the influence of Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht and Arians was significant.
While the losses mounted year after year, we now know that Licht was picking the right players. The problem was the coaching was significantly holding the Bucs back.
Once Licht found the right coach who chose the right staff, boom! Guys began developing. Now, the Bucs basically have a Pro Bowl team for a starting roster.
There is no doubt Brady has had a massive influence on this team. He didn’t have to carry the Bucs. Before he got here, the Bucs were a team that couldn’t find a cold drink in a bar. Brady showed them where to find the avocado tequila.
And if Arians isn’t here, is Brady even here? It is pretty clear Arians wouldn’t be here if not for Licht.
Joe thinks it’s fair to give Licht, Arians and Brady each one-third of the credit. Licht found the coach and the players and Arians developed those players and courted and won the hand of Brady.
Brady did the rest, demanding a new standard for a team that previously was the NFC’s fire hydrant in a dog park through The Lost Decade.
July 30th, 2021 at 7:10 am
Arians began the culture change in Tampa Bay. There is zero doubt in my mind that Brady’s decision was heavily influenced by BA’s presence.
July 30th, 2021 at 7:11 am
SAS like virtually everyone in his profession is a blowhard.
Having outrageous disagreeable takes comes with the territory. My biggest gripe with SAS is his prejudice towards major market teams and athletes.
Of course a coach in Boston is better than one in Tampa!
Meanwhile AGAIN…BB has coached in the NFL 26 years. In the seven years without Brady he had ONE winning season at 7-9 and six LOSING seasons.
You can say coincidence is not causation and I’d have to agree. My point is not definitive because we get into the realm of opinion when it comes to who contributes most to an organization’s success..so many factors from market size to ownership to fans before we even get to the GM Coach and QB.
BUT coincidence or not it is a FREAKING FACT!!!
Without Brady as his QB BB is a LOSING NFL HC.
IMHO he’s an HOF level DC but not a great leader of men or a particularly great HC. He had Brady to fill in his HUGE leadership and personality void.
July 30th, 2021 at 7:14 am
Brady chose the Bucs because the team had serious talent already. That’s due to the coaches, GM and scouts. Lots of credit to go around in my opinion.
July 30th, 2021 at 7:19 am
Licht is outstanding. What’s so impressive is watching how he developed; his ability to learn and change is outstanding. Whose a better GM over the past 3-4 years?
July 30th, 2021 at 7:27 am
I’d give Licht and Arians 100% credit for signing Brady and Brady gets 100% credit for not just Brown, Gronk and Fournette, but Add in Suh, JPP, Barrett, Godwin and all the reworked contracts that allowed the team to stay together.
July 30th, 2021 at 7:31 am
I agree with joe all the way!
July 30th, 2021 at 7:32 am
Bucs are Ronins No more.
Ronin – Masterless Samurai
July 30th, 2021 at 7:39 am
Bucs had losing season after losing season, and the Bucs used those resulting high draft picks to build a pro bowl team. The JETS, OTOH, had the same options over the same span of time, and look what they ended up with
July 30th, 2021 at 7:44 am
Lots of things have to go right for a team to win a Super bowl. All those things mentioned are part of that dynamic. It’s a fool’s errand to try to parse credit like that. But of course it’s done all the time. Obviously all of those items are big factors and there are obviously many more including a little bit of luck.
July 30th, 2021 at 7:56 am
You can see how good management works everywhere…..you deal with companies & businesses that totally have it together. You also see what happens when there is failure at the top
Give credit where it’s due…..I credit the Glazers for hanging in with Licht & it all turned positive from there.
July 30th, 2021 at 8:04 am
“You can make an argument”
Cmon guys. Thats BS
Gronk , AB and Lenny would not be here if Brady did not join bucs
Just stop with this other nonsense
July 30th, 2021 at 8:37 am
It’s a TRIPLE HEADED MONSTER… To the rest of the NFL…”Deal with it!”. GI BUCS!!!
July 30th, 2021 at 8:52 am
Steven007 nailed it … “It’s a fool’s errand to try to parse credit like that.”
It takes a TEAM to build a TEAM. In the Bucs’ case, we’ve been missing certain components for years & years that have proven to be essential to our current championship TEAM. The Glazers finally went ‘all-in’ in 2019 when they hired Bruce Arians; prior to that we had a coaching merry-go-round that couldn’t develop players. BA has paved an interesting new path in the NFL in terms of coaching staffs. Yes it’s LARGE, but more importantly, it’s very EFFECTIVE. Jason Licht has grown tremendously IMO since his early days with Lovie Smith.
But more than anything, I think it was the addition of Tom Brady that put us over the top, and not just in terms of demanding new standards of competence & performance. I give him full credit for us being able to add Gronk, Brown & Fournette to our roster. Plus got a feeling that we were able to re-sign a number of players to relatively team-friendly contracts because of Brady being our QB.
It all works together. Like Steven007 said … “It’s a fool’s errand to try to parse credit like that.”
July 30th, 2021 at 9:39 am
Don’t forget Jameis. Five years of record numbers in the passing game, had to be the major factor for Brady to even notice the receiving crew the Bucs had. It’s easy to imagine Brady thinking, “If that doofus can throw for 5,000 yards with that offense, I’m good for at least 6,000 or even more.” How about a new league record for TDs in a season? That sounds like an attainable goal for this team to me.
July 30th, 2021 at 10:37 am
Joe, with all due respect, you keep on bringing kellerman and this guy….They are a couple of jokers……They are dumb, they build a reality show about sports….
July 30th, 2021 at 1:33 pm
Not to slight either Arians or Licht, but really ? Ask yourself if we would be where we are w/o Tom Brady ?
It was Tom Brady who was the “genius” in New England. BB has been revealed to be what he is, a mere mortal w/o Brady.
And, it is Tom Brady who is most responsible here in Tampa, for our success.
July 30th, 2021 at 2:01 pm
This has been a really weird day. The fact that I agree with Joe 100% makes just a little bit weirder.
July 30th, 2021 at 2:36 pm
SA is a total piece of… Mr. Know it all, intentionally provoking, argumentative, nasty, and yes, even a racist you know what. As soon as he comes on TV or the radio I change the channel. So to me, his opinion on this means less than nothing. It dies not exist. Quote some other turd, Joe.
July 30th, 2021 at 9:48 pm
LOL 🙂