They did it!

TB12 to TB.

Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians, general manager Jason Licht and the Glazers have stunned the football world by successfully luring Tom Brady away from New England to Tampa Bay – and beating out the Los Angeles Chargers along the way.

As of today, the Bucs are no longer an irrelevant franchise.

Having Brady, a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer, winner of an NFL-record six Super Bowls and whom most regard as the greatest quarterback of all-time, on your team means that your team is relevant.

Patriots QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Getty Images

Now.

The Jameis Winston Show has been canceled after five seasons in Tampa Bay – the last of which included a league-high 30 interceptions and an NFL-record seven pick-sixes.

Now it’s time for Tampa Bay fans to watch The Brady Bunch, starring Brady with co-stars in Pro Bowl wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.

For the Bucs, it’s been a minute since they’ve been relevant.

Over a decade, actually.

The day Malcolm Glazer traded for Jon Gruden in 2002 was a monumental day for national relevance, and that relevance seemed to leave Tampa Bay the day he was fired following the 2008 season when the team started the year 9-3 and finished 9-7, narrowly missing the playoffs.

Otherwise there have been merely blips of relevancy during the Glazers’ time as owners.

There was Tony Dungy’s 1997 team, featuring red and pewter and a new, fierce pirate logo, making the playoffs to end a 13-year postseason drought. There was the epic 1999 NFC Championship Game clash with the Greatest Show On Turf in St. Louis against the eventual Super Bowl-champion Rams. There was the blockbuster trade for flamboyant wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson in 2000.

But nothing like the Gruden trade, which culminated in winning the Bucs winning their first Super Bowl in 2002.

Nothing in the past 11 years has even come close to relevancy in Tampa Bay until the day the Bucs landed Brady. Brady’s presence takes the Bucs from a local, small market team to a national team overnight.

Now that Tampa Bay is relevant once again, can the Bucs win? Because that’s what this move is really all about – winning.

Now.

Patriots QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Getty Images

Brady comes to Tampa Bay as the second all-time leading passer with 74,571 yards and 541 touchdowns – behind only New Orleans’ Drew Brees, a QB he’ll now face twice a year in the NFC South, with 77,416 yards and 547 TDs – but the stat that interests the Bucs the most are his wins.

Brady comes to Tampa Bay with a career record of 219-64 from his 20 years in New England. His 219 wins are the most by an NFL quarterback in league history. His 77.4 percent winning percentage is the highest among QBs with 70 career victories – higher than Hall of Famers Roger Staubach, Joe Montana and Peyton Manning.

He’s had 17 seasons with 10 wins or more. The Bucs as a franchise have had only seven in the past 44 seasons. Brady’s 30 career playoff wins are the most in NFL history, which is a stunning achievement compared to Tampa Bay’s six postseason victories.

For Arians, the quarterback whisperer, he turns 68 in October and likely has a few years left before retiring to his lake house on Lake Oconee, Georgia for good. He wants to win now.

For Licht, he’s been the team’s general manager since 2014 and has had more Top 12 draft picks (five) than he’s had teams with winning records (one). He wants to win now.

For the Glazers, the last time Tampa Bay made the playoffs was 2007, and since then they’ve lost a generation of Bucs fans and seen a steady decline in season ticket sales and attendance. They want to win now.

For Brady, who turns 43 in August, he is eager to see how much of his monumental success with the Patriots was because of head coach Bill Belichick and how much of it was because of Brady’s own right arm, instincts and his high football I.Q. With only a few years left to play, Brady wants to win now – and prove that he can win without Belichick.

Patriots QB Tom Brady and WR Julian Edelman – Photo by: Getty Images

Brady felt let down last year as Belichick swung and missed – badly – on giving his QB enough weapons to win with. Belichick waited too long for Pro Bowl tight end Rob Gronkowski to contemplate retirement that the Patriots missed out on tight end Jared Cook, who signed with New Orleans.

The Patriots tried and failed to sign former Bucs wide receiver Adam Humphries in free agency. N’Keal Harry, New England’s first-round pick, underwhelmed as a rookie and was injured, catching just 12 passes for 105 yards (8.8 avg.) and two touchdowns.

Belichick traded for Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, but he recorded just 26 catches for 207 yards (8.0 avg.) and one touchdowns and was injured. The Patriots also added Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon during the season, but neither lasted long due to off-field issues.

With New England offering less money and having far fewer weapons in its current arsenal than Tampa Bay, the decision for Brady to come to the Bucs and throw the ball to Evans, Godwin and a pair of talented tight ends in O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate was made easier.

The fact that he’ll be around a fun-loving, offensive-minded head coach like Arians instead of the constant pressure-cooker situation in New England with Belichick for his last couple of years in the league also has to be a breath of fresh air for Brady. Playing opposite Todd Bowles’ up-and-coming Bucs defense certainly had to have been a draw, too.

The arrival of the greatest quarterback in league history in Tampa Bay does come with some questions, though.

Is he a good fit in Arians’ vertical passing offense, which likes to push the ball down the field? Well, the Bucs wouldn’t sign Brady if they didn’t think he would be.

Listen, this is Arians’ offense. If Arians says Brady is a good fit, why not believe him?

Brady gets rid of the ball quickly, but how will he hold up behind Tampa Bay’s offensive line, which surrendered 47 sacks? Brady was sacked just 27 times in New England last year.

Patriots QB Tom Brady and Bill Belichick – Photo by: Getty Images

Tampa Bay plans to address the offensive line in the 2020 NFL Draft – likely in the first round with the selection of a right tackle to replace 34-year old Demar Dotson. The Bucs will also draft another running back or two to bolster the backfield and provide competition to Ronald Jones II, who showed tremendous progress in his second year in the league.

And with Brady turning 43 this year, are the Bucs automatically now legitimate playoff contenders despite finishing 7-9 last year and missing the postseason for over a decade?

Nothing is automatic in the NFL – just look at last year’s Cleveland team, which many in the media anointed as the favorites to win the AFC North division with the trade for Odell Beckham, Jr. Instead, the Browns regressed from 7-8-1 in 2018 to 6-10 last year and missed the playoffs for a 17th straight year.

What Brady offers the Bucs is a quarterback that can protect the football, which was something that Winston couldn’t do. The highest number of interceptions Brady has thrown in a season is 14, and that was all the way back in 2005.

Winston threw 30 interceptions last year while Brady threw just eight. In fact, if you add up all of Brady’s interceptions over the past four years it’s only 29. Winston has thrown 73 picks in the last four years. The Bucs just didn’t believe Winston could stop turning the ball over at a rate that was clearly hurting the team’s chances of winning games.

Brady also brings playoff and championship experience. The only other Tampa Bay players that have won a Super Bowl on the roster are outside linebackers Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul, but no Bucs on the offensive side of the ball. The effect that Brady can have on a young locker room in terms of learning how to prepare and learning how to win is invaluable.

Patriots QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Getty Images

For as a well-liked and well-respected as Winston was in Tampa Bay, he just couldn’t offer that to the Bucs – either on the field or in the locker room.

Very few can offer what Brady brings to the Bucs – relevancy, a national spotlight with more nationally televised games, a ticket sales surge that will lead to a sold out Raymond James Stadium and more importantly, enough wins to help Tampa Bay contend for another Super Bowl.

It just so happens that this year’s Super Bowl will be hosted in Tampa Bay, too.