FAB 3. Brady Brings Experience, Big Arm To Bucs

I had a fantastic 20-minute conversation this week with former Tampa Bay quarterback Chris Simms about Tom Brady and what he brings to the Buccaneers at age 42. Simms, who is an NFL commentator for ProFootballTalk.com, spent the 2012 season as an offensive assistant coach with the Patriots, working with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel and Brady. That first-hand knowledge and experience gives Simms some real insight into what Brady can do in Tampa Bay in 2020.

Right off the bat, Simms scoffed at the notion that Brady didn’t have the arm to play in Bruce Arians’ vertical passing game.

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Getty Images

“I think he still has the arm to play in the Bruce Arians offense for sure,” Simms said. “Brady’s arm is an all-time arm. It’s not in the class of Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, John Elway and Patrick Mahomes, but for me it’s the next level down in the history of great arms in the NFL.”

At the same time, Simms said that the 42-year old Brady isn’t as good as the 32-year Brady was a decade ago.

“I wouldn’t say that Brady isn’t one of the 10 best quarterbacks in football any more, but he’s still really good,” Simms said. “But you don’t need to have one of the 10 best quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl. I mean Nick Foles just beat Tom Brady in the Super Bowl three years ago and Foles wasn’t a Top 10 quarterback in football at the time and isn’t today.”

Tampa Bay didn’t sign Brady just for his arm. The Bucs also want the experience and gravitas that comes with winning six Super Bowls in New England. Head coach Bruce Arians was famous for saying that the Bucs beat the Bucs too often last year. The hope is that Brady can help teach this young football team how to win.

“There are other things that Brady brings to the organization and there is great value in that,” Simms said. “I’ve heard Bruce Arians and Jason Licht say some things about it and they are correct. He brings the organization and the locker room great confidence. He’s one of those guys like an Aaron Rodgers or a DeShaun Watson that walks in the room and the guys go, ‘We’ve got a chance to win today. In fact, if we give this guy the ball late in the game – winning or losing – we’re going to win with this guy.’ There is great value in that, along with the work ethic and the attention to detail. That is going to rub off on the rest of the organization. That’s the great thing about Tom Brady.”

Tampa Bay has a pair of Super Bowl champions on defense in outside linebackers Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul, but lacks playoff experience on offense. In fact, center Ryan Jensen and new right tackle Joe Haeg are the only players in Tampa Bay’s offensive huddle that have even played in a playoff game at all.

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Just having Brady in Tampa Bay will raise the standard of all Buccaneers players. Simms experienced that playing alongside some of the legendary players from the Super Bowl team.

“Just to speak to my own experience, we had a Super Bowl-type defense in 2005,” Simms said. “We had a number of big-time stars who were professional and worked hard every day. We had Ronde Barber, Derrick Brooks, Brian Kelly and Simeon Rice among others down there and they were the standard-setters on the team. I was always worried about not playing well and disappointing the defense. I didn’t want to walk off the field and have them say, ‘Damn, let’s score some points! Shit, we can’t keep stopping them all day! Let’s go!’

“They put the pressure on our offense to rise to a standard that way, and they were the tone-setters in practice and it did rub off. Those guys did everything the right way and showed everybody that if you wanted to go to the playoffs, this is the type of individual effort you have to have to help the team achieve the greater good. That’s a real thing. Brady is going to bring that Tampa Bay, especially on offense.”
Part of the experience Brady brings to the Bucs is not just understanding how to win in general, but also how to win situationally.

“Brady is going to understand how to play situational football better,” Simms said. “That’s something that Jameis struggled with. Brady has a great game of how the game is unfolding. ‘Okay, it’s going to be a shootout, so I need to take some more chances. Okay, it’s a defensive struggle, so I’m just going to throw this out of bounds, punt and play for the next series.’ He has a great understanding of that, and last year showed it. They won most games by winning with defense and ball control and not turning the ball over. He’s very capable of playing a lot of different ways, which is going to help the team put together game plans and figuring out their plan of attack.”

PFT’s Mike Florio and Chris Simms and Bucs head coach Bruce Arians

Simms believes that the collaboration that will take place between Brady, Arians and Leftwich will force the Bucs offense to be more balanced in 2020. Having Brady, who turns 43 this year, hang the pocket and throw the ball over 600 times in a vertical offense like Jameis Winston did last year and absorb the punishment from that many drop-backs is not ideal.

“It’s very hard to play that style of football, and when you have a young quarterback that is always taking chances – yeah, that can backfire,” Simms said. “You need that versatility in your offense. Brady can’t do that and play like that and make it through an entire 16-game schedule. I worry about that. If I have one negative about Brady over studying his film from the past year it’s that I have seen cracks in the armor where he is reluctant to stand in there and take the hit to throw the 20-year completion. That’s perfectly normal. I’m not saying he’s a coward or a wimp. But he conserves himself and wants the smart play more often than not.

“Hey, his arm is still great and he’s still a good decision-maker, but I think at 43 they have to implement more of a running game into their offense and I think they would be crazy not to implement some of the quick passing game that featured some of the option-jerk routes that Julian Edelman and Wes Welker ran so well for so many years. Brady can teach those guys how it’s done. People say that everybody has the same plays. Trust me, they don’t. I was up in New England with Brady and I played for Josh McDaniels. Brady is going to bring some thoughts to Bruce Arians and Byron Leftwich, and that’s an addition and a great value to the offense as well.”

Simms said expect a better offense in Tampa Bay with Brady at the helm – and far fewer turnovers. Even better than the league’s third-ranked offense last year, as Tampa Bay averaged 397.9 yards per game and 28.6 points per game? Why not with the greatest quarterback of all-time at the controls of Arians’ offense.

“It’s going to be a more efficient Bucs offense with Brady, who is so experienced and so smart to begin with,” Simms said. “New England had one of the most in-depth, inventory offenses to begin with in the history of the NFL. He’s got 20 years of inventory there to draw from. If you watch New England, they’re not a team that calls two plays in the huddle and checks to that. This is where Brady is going to bring plays to Tampa Bay that [Bill] Belichick taught him – all-purpose plays that will work against any coverage they face. They’ll be able to go up to the line of scrimmage and yell, “Omaha Blue Go” and run the play and keep the pressure on the defense.

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Getty Images

“Brady’s mental aspect is as good as any we’ve seen in the game. And when he does make that right decision he still has a very strong, accurate arm. That’s going to be a very deadly combination with those weapons on the outside and a solid offensive line. If they can get somebody at running back that can be a little bit of a game-changer in the backfield – what the [expletive] do you to stop the Bucs and that offense? That’s scary dangerous.”