Over the bye week, Bucs general manager Jason Licht joined NFL Network’s Peter Schrager on The Season With Peter Schrager and dived into plenty of topics – football and non-football related.

As it pertains to the team, they reflected on the 2020 season that led to the Super Bowl with Tom Brady and how the current 3-1 Bucs led by head coach Todd Bowles and quarterback Baker Mayfield are coming together.

Jason Licht Discusses Tom Brady Effect, Turning Point For Bucs

Much has been made about the Bucs turning over a new leaf this season with Baker Mayfield at quarterback, Todd Bowles bringing in his own coaches, and the team filling out its roster with plenty of rookies and giving younger players bigger roles.

It is the beginning of a new era of Buccaneers football after three years of football that meant so much to the city. General manager Jason Licht went into detail with Peter Schrager about the impact Brady had on Tampa Bay and if he has really sat down and thought about how crazy it truly was.

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: USA Today

“It was nuts,” Licht said. “Really no, I haven’t yet. I mean, there’s been little moments. But it was awesome for the entire fan base, for the city. When we signed him, I kind of joked around with a few of the people here that real estate went up in Tampa with the Brady effect and I was wondering why we didn’t get a cut from that. It was phenomenal.

Although March 20th, 2020 was one of the biggest days of Jason Licht’s tenure as it was the day Tom Brady officially signed, Licht pointed to a different day that was a crucial turning point for the organization.

January 8, 2019.

That was the day Bruce Arians came out of retirement to become the Bucs’ 12th head coach.

Without Arians, Licht it is not certain that Brady would have left Foxborough for the Sunshine State.

“I will say this, a big turning point obviously in the last few decades with the Buccaneers is Brady, but I would say – it’s gonna sound a little crazy,” Licht added. “No offense to Brady, I don’t want to minimize the effect that he had, but I think the total turning point, at least in my tenure here, was the day that I hired Bruce. He came in along with Todd and most of the staff, a lot of the staff that we still have here, and changed the culture.

“Although I did know Tom from my time in New England, I was there when we drafted him. Wish I could say I was the one that told Belichick to draft him, but I didn’t. But I knew him from the seven years that I spent with the Patriots organization. I still don’t know if we would have gotten him without Bruce.”

Jason Licht Recalls Bucs Free Agency Pitch To Tom Brady

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians and QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

When a big player hits the free agent market, teams often pull out all the stops to acquire them. Private jets. Meetings with other players, coaches, and owners. Lavish dinners. The whole nine yards.

To convince someone like Tom Brady to join the Bucs, all it really took was a Bruce Arians pitch.

“Bruce has such a way about him,” Licht added. “Bruce is just such a phenomenal leader and we had a great team. We had a great base foundation and it was basically, ‘Hey f-ck it, why don’t you come down here? What better place would there be to f-cking win some games and win the Super Bowl than Tampa?’ I don’t know if that did it, but it probably would have sold me.”

After Brady decided to return last season for one final chance at hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, Arians resigned as the head coach and gave the reins to defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. Much has been made about that transition and whether Brady and Arians got along, but Jason Licht thought their relationship was perfect and they complemented each other well.

“I think [Arians] was always willing to give [Brady] some leeway to do some things the way he wanted to do them but within Bruce’s realm of things. I think it was the perfect match, to be honest with you, where Tom was very analytical in terms of – these are the passes that have the best chance of having success and we’re going to keep it dialed in on these things.

“And Bruce is more, ‘F-ck it. Go for it. No risk it, no biscuit.’ You know, like the play right before the half in the NFC Championship game [to Scotty Miller]. Without those kinds of things, we wouldn’t have made it to the Super Bowl but not without Tom as well. I think that was the perfect marriage. It worked out well.”