The Bucs Made A Massive Mistake Signing Tom Brady
The general public loves Tom Brady. They can’t stop foaming at the mouth talking about him for some reason. Brady had a QBR of 53.7 in 2019. The general public hates Jameis Winston for whatever reason. Nobody can seem to get past the turnovers even though there is a much better way to quantify them. Jameis Winston had a QBR of 53.7 in 2019. QBR isn’t everything but it exemplifies the point. If Tampa Bay thinks they’re getting an upgrade with Tom Brady, they haven’t done their homework. The Bucs made a massive mistake signing Tom Brady.
First, schematically this makes no sense. Bruce Arians loves to push the ball down the field. Jameis Winston does that. Tom Brady does not. Winston averaged 8.2 yards per attempt in 2019. Compare that to Brady who sits at 6.6 for last year. Winston can make throws that Brady simply cannot at this stage of his career. Watch the games. Find me 5 throws where Brady threw darts deep down the field late in the year. Didn’t happen. Brady is a technician in the short passing game. That’s not what Bruce Arians does. Something gotta give there.
I think people don’t understand how bad Brady was last year. The goal is to score points. Tampa Bay scored more points than New England last year. Tampa Bay put up more total yards than New England last year. The Patriots scored 26.3 points per game last year. Keep in mind, that’s including 3 interception returns, 2 fumble returns, and 2 blocked punts. No team scored more defensive touchdowns last year than New England. Take those away and it wouldn’t have been close. Tampa with Winston was a much prolific offense.
Yes, the Bucs have better receiving weapons. I’m not denying that. However, New England had a much better ground attack than the Bucs. Tom Brady is going to get thrown into an offense with great weapons… that he will have to carry. Getting bailed out with the running game isn’t happening. Brady has Ronald Jones to lean on. Hey, good luck with that. People look at the great wide outs and look past the rest. Tampa also has Ronald Jones and a bad offensive line. Tampa still needs to fix those things.
Also have to factor in the coaching. Name the player that left New England and got better. The list is Chandler Jones. That’s it. Go down the list. Jamie Collins, Darrelle Revis, Dion Lewis, Malcolm Butler, Nate Solder, etc. Bill Belichick won 11 games with Matt Cassel. Are we sure Brady has anything left and that the coaching didn’t carry him this past year?
Brady is going to be 43 before the season starts. Fourty three! Name the quarterback that was productive that last in his career. Brady ranked near the bottom of every statistical category at his position in 2019. Now I’m supposed to believe he’s going to get better at 43? Not buying it. Pay for future performance, not past production. The schedule also gets much tougher. No more playing the AFC East. The NFC is a dog fight every week.
Peyton Manning threw 100 interceptions during his first five years in the NFL. Winston has thrown 88. Let’s not just give up on guys so soon. There are things that Jameis does really well. He’s only going to keep getting better. Winston will be 26 next year and hasn’t yet reached his peak. Why give up on that for a broken down Brady who has nothing left? Brady will look good for about 6-8 weeks and then everything will crumble later in the season. Jameis can be a really productive quarterback by cutting just 5-10 turnovers out. Tampa got worse and I don’t know how anyone can believe otherwise.
