The Bucs Were (Are?) Tom Brady’s Team
March 13th, 2022
Influence.
Joe has written many times before how former (?) Bucs quarterback Tom Brady single-handedly turned around the NFC’s fire hydrant in a dog park into Super Bowl champions.
Go watch highlights of the Super Bowl win and pay attention to when — in separate clips — Lavonte David and Mike Evans embraced Brady postgame. The first words out their mouths? “Thank you.”
Getting to watch this first-hand and up-close a handful of times made Joe a full believer in the Brady Way.
Albert Breer of SI.com has a new piece where he documents how much the Bucs became Brady’s team. It seems Brady and his TB12 methods and his habits were so influential, Breer noted over half the Bucs roster became TB12 disciples.
Tom Brady’s body coach and business partner Alex Guerrero—around whom a dust storm of acrimony had been kicked up back in New England—was out on the practice field with hard-to-miss resistance bands, getting the quarterback his work in after Tampa Bay had just trudged through a two-hour joint practice with the Titans. Alongside Brady was his eldest son, Jack, holder of a hard-to-get, tiered-in spot with the players through COVID-19 protocols.
From where father and son ran gassers together, Brady could throw a ball through the window of Guerrero’s office, located on the ground floor of the team’s facility. And it was through that office more than half of the Bucs’ 53-man roster would pass for treatment over the course of the season. (Brady thought it was important all his teammates had access to Guerrero, so as to make sure the area remained a team space.)
The Buccaneers’ operation had become, in so many ways, Brady’s operation, and you couldn’t take five steps in that place over the last two years without tripping over another reminder of it. The Bucs were happy to make it so, too, because, well, it meant they had Brady, and having Brady meant winning 29 games and a championship.
Breer’s piece details that good quarterbacks have more clout now than ever before. So if they get irked with their team just a little, they will basically say, “Trade me or cut me or I will be a pain in your arse, which will get worse by the week unless you do as I say, if I play at all.” Deshaun Watson and Russell Wilson are the latest examples.
Wilson got traded last week. Watson is on the cusp of being dealt.
And this is why Joe believes the Bucs fought to keep Chris Godwin long-term. Godwin and Evans may be the best one-two punch in the NFL at receiver. What quarterback wouldn’t want to play with those two? It’s why Brady came to Tampa and it may be why Watson signs off on a trade to the Bucs.
An unnamed AFC executive told Breer in the article, a team “flat out” cannot compete without a quarterback. The good quarterbacks know this and therefore have massive leverage.
So if a team is fortunate enough to get a good quarterback, he better be pampered to include weapons and an offensive line. Otherwise, out the door he goes and before he turns the corner, losing will become the order of the day and lots of jobs will be lost.
March 13th, 2022 at 12:04 am
Nice article Joe
March 13th, 2022 at 12:47 am
Hopefully Trask can be our first drafted qb to have a great career with us.
March 13th, 2022 at 12:55 am
He should force the Texans to trade him to the bucs for low compensation so he doesn’t cost his new team a bunch of pics..say either to the bucs just for a 1st or nobody
March 13th, 2022 at 1:05 am
Kaaron Rodgers, coff, coff
March 13th, 2022 at 1:13 am
Goal: acquire QB who isn’t a phouecking prima donna. The guys who think they’re bigger than the team, take a pass. Hard no. No pampering. No, you don’t get to tell the front office how to do their job, unless you’re the goat.
March 13th, 2022 at 1:44 am
Sit tight … move on. Yes yes yes we all know QB is important.
March 13th, 2022 at 4:20 am
is it me, or since we let jameis walk, we’ve been the most interesting franchise in the nfl…
#WeAreJustSoDarnInteresting
even the off seasons are packed with a punch…
#LetsEatSushiAndSipKoolAid
March 13th, 2022 at 4:21 am
lets at least snack on uber fresh and soft croissants
March 13th, 2022 at 4:36 am
The GOAT was all the things that De22 Watson is not and never will be.
Do you really want the face of the franchise, your team, to be a scum bag on and off the field, and do you want to be debating the merits of every 22 incidents forever? Do you enjoy a divided fan base, spending the season arguing for or against him, and thinking about this guy’s baggage every time you see him?
That, on top of mediocrity?
What exactly is Joe’s obsession with Watson anyway? There are other mediocre QBs to obsess about (who are better, cost less and have far less baggage) but Joe drops them all for De22? Really?
March 13th, 2022 at 4:38 am
Brady just at a Man United game…perhaps Glazers are willing to let him in him as part owner in exchange for a few more years
March 13th, 2022 at 4:49 am
It’s part of the reason I was so for his signing. I love Winston, still think he’d be a top 10 QB (he was on pace for that last year), but Brady is the GOAT, and, as I explained to a friend who isn’t a Bucs-fan who thought this was a bad idea, the reason you sign Brady is because he changes the franchise overnight. Just the way the team is viewed, the number of prime-time games you get, just the feel of everything to do with the team changes.
Now if the Bucs don’t get Watson, if they actually dare go into the season with Trask or Gabbert or Bridgewater, we’re all going to very quickly remember how the Bucs were in the pre-Bucs day when our Prime-Time game is on a Thursday night vs the Falcons, and that’s it.
March 13th, 2022 at 6:24 am
Loved Tom Brady while he was a Buc, but he’s moved on. Maybe one day Bucsville will too.
March 13th, 2022 at 7:22 am
But we’re also supposed to believe that a team that bent over backwards this far…Brady soured on them? I’m not buying. Just not buying.
March 13th, 2022 at 7:52 am
Our team is too good to lose 10 games, even with Gabby, Trask, or a mediocre QB, therefore any chance of getting an elite QB prospect in the draft is out of the question, we are going to be chasing our tails for years, living obscurity again, you Watson haters remember those days, it wasn’t long ago, so keep your comments to yourself about Watson the person, and pray Watson the football player gets traded to our team, sit back, STFU and enjoy your Bucs for the next 5-10 years
March 13th, 2022 at 7:57 am
Unlike Watson, it took Brady 20 years of playing before he wanted any say in N.E.. Tom was the ultimate company man. First ten years of his career he was an extention of Belichick. It wasn’t till he hit 40 that he started griping about say. Another thing Brady never did is quit on his team. Forget the sex stuff, this guy said I don’t want to play for you no more, and left his team mates hanging. He sent the Texans on a downward spiral. Once a quitter, always a quitter, and that adds up to loser. This is the guy you want to give up so much for Joe?
March 13th, 2022 at 8:06 am
Tom Brady cost us absolutely nothing….not even a 7th round pick….he came in and won us a Superbowl.
Don’t fall into the trap……spending maybe 3 first round picks and a player or two for an unknown……
Let’s keep who we can keep…get younger & draft well….at least we have the picks.
If we go the Watson route, however, I’ll support it….because, my screen name says it all….TBBF
March 13th, 2022 at 8:36 am
I heard Trask plays the QB. Let’s try him! Duhhhh-yup! This is a 5-12 football team. I am so stoked to get pumped up for the draft every year! Let’s go 10 for 10 again and Get back to being #1 at losing! Now we say 10 for 11 since the NFL added the extra game.
March 13th, 2022 at 9:04 am
But lamarcus and oneil just said that brady was a mistake. Not worth it. We should have focused on building a dynasty
😂
Again i reiterate…we have the dumbest fans on the planet
I mean dumest. There maybe they understand now
March 13th, 2022 at 9:22 am
It’s laughable to think that anyone can come in and take over the same way TB12 did. D Watson couldn’t carry Toms jockstrap, yet a lot on here think we should trade away the future for him. Why? Because we have a good team and don’t want to waste it? We had a good team with Winston and it was wasted. Build within the draft and maybe we will see that Trask/Gabbert is a good leader and follows the Brady model. They lived it ! We already know that Watson does not live by the same creed.
March 13th, 2022 at 9:33 am
Last time Watson played, with a crappy coach, no running game, defense or elite receivers, Watson threw for 4800 yards, 67% completion, 33 TDs only 7 ints, you can b!tch about him as a person, no arguments, but to say he can’t hold Brady’s jockstrap is a bit much, Watson is a top 5 talent, give him the weapons and defense Brady had, he’d definitely hold Brady’s jockstrap
March 13th, 2022 at 9:34 am
Winston can’t hold Watsons jockstrap he’d turn it over and sniff it
March 13th, 2022 at 10:00 am
@CleanHouse
I’d be happy if the Glazers even just hired TB12 as a coach, consultant even waterboy if it meant he was around the team. He doesn’t even have to play to have an affect. An Ownership position would be better but the Glazers like money too much and probably wouldn’t give up any stake.
March 13th, 2022 at 10:04 am
We still own the rights to Brady, right?
He is signed to a two year deal- only played one.
If he is so mad about our defense blowing the playoff game, that he wants out,
Then trade his rights to the team where he wants to play.
Say, San Francisco gets the rights to Brady, and we get Jimmy G.
Not ideal- but better than nothing.
Im not afraid of Gabbert starting. He showed arm talent on a horrible team.
I think he could lead the Bucs offense. Just need to repair his self confidence.
March 13th, 2022 at 10:34 am
Jeff….. just go jump your band wagon self to another team.
March 13th, 2022 at 10:46 am
Bringing in watson would be kind of the perfect situation. Trask would get his chance during Watson’s suspension. Chance to get his feet wet and experience, also to see what we have.
March 13th, 2022 at 11:08 am
If one believes that the QB should wield as much power as Joe suggests (& I believe it should for only the very best & most mature QBs) and TB12 wants Arians gone, then ownership should make it so.
Would you rather have Arians for one year or Brady for one year?
March 13th, 2022 at 11:47 am
Shucks, Joe almost had me convinced that The Lichthouse was an amazing GM who had turned the dumpster fire HE built into a champion.
March 13th, 2022 at 3:33 pm
“Rod Munch Says:
March 13th, 2022 at 4:49 am
I love Winston, still think he’d be a top 10 QB (he was on pace for that last year).”
There you have it. As I’ve been saying all along, Munch’s hatred of Trask is derived from Munch being a Jameis-Winston-FSU-jersey-wearing-FSU-fan who thinks Winston’s atrocious 28-42 record with the Bucs and infamous 33-30 season (33 TDs – 30 INTs) were things of beauty.
March 13th, 2022 at 3:46 pm
There has only been one season in which Tom Brady has played for the Bucs and not won a Super Bowl, that is pretty awesome
March 13th, 2022 at 7:38 pm
Please not Watson, i can not be behind a team with that kind of leader and i know he did not get prosecuted but there are 20 accusations and it looks way too Cosby so i know if there’s more we could be destroyed for years.
March 13th, 2022 at 7:52 pm
Are.