“Tompa” Bay Buccaneers
Comments(0) | After 20 years with the New England Patriots, Tom Brady decided to take the last few years of his career elsewhere.
As the 2020 NFL season inches closer and closer the shock of the news continues to fade, and it becomes a lot more real. Tom Brady will be playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for more than likely the rest of his career.
43-year-old Tom Brady never wanted to leave Tampa Bay, according to an article on Yahoo Sports written by Dan Wetzel. “If Belichick thought Brady would just return, he was mistaken. Brady did not want to leave, but he clearly wanted to be convinced to stay. There is a difference”, Wetzel notes in his article.
Brady certainly does not owe the Patriots anything. He played 20 seasons in New England, well above the average career span of a professional quarterback, which is a little over four years. He has taken the Patriots to nine super bowls, winning six of them. That is something that had never been done before, but now he is ready for new challenges.
First off, this will be Brady’s first time adjusting to a new team since being drafted 199th overall by the New England Patriots in the 2000 NFL draft. “Obviously for me, changing teams after a long period of time has given me an opportunity to really look at myself and what I want to continue to achieve in my career and think that I can bring to a team,” Brady said through an interview with Carmen Vltall.
Second, he has to learn an entirely new system and playbook, which he really hasn’t had to do since first joining the Patriots back in 2000. “You’re trying to learn a bunch of different things and you are trying to not only learn an offense but learn your way to work or learn guys’ names. I did not even know where the quarterbacks’ room was or where the full team meetings room was. You get in here and your brain is trying to figure out a lot of different things,” he adds in the same interview.
Unfortunately, the pandemic has stripped the future hall of famer of getting valuable reps with his new teammates. The offseason program was completely wiped out. That time is typically used to learn new systems and plays all together.
Regardless of the circumstances, Brady seems to be settling into Tampa Bay just find. It only took a short amount of time for Brady to start yelling out encouragement and praise to his receivers. He is laughing with his fellow quarterbacks during conditioning. “he’s acting like they’re all old friends already”, notes Vltall.
While lots are optimistic of Brady’s future with the Buccaneers, there are still plenty that think Tampa Bay won’t get its money’s worth from Brady. Tampa Bay offered Tom Brady over $50 million guaranteed for two years. Additionally, he has the opportunity to earn lots more in incentives throughout the year.
Tom Brady is arguably the best quarterback of all time, but even the greats can’t play forever. Not even an obscene amount of TB12 sports supplements (Brady’s sports performance brand that he frequently advertises) can keep him in the NFL forever.
Looking at straight statistics from the past will show you that the odds are not in Brady’s favor. Since 1920, four NFL quarterbacks have played a season at age 43 or over. Of those four, none of them have started more then six games in a single season.
The Buccaneers will kick off their season on September 14, in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.