The next man up?
Does Brady make Buccaneers instant title contenders? Second-year quarterback hopes to emulate 6-time champ
With the departure
of Tom Brady, the Patriots and
Bill Belichick’s mentality of ‘next man up’ will be
fully tested.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have resided for nearly the entirety of their existence on the bottom rung of NFL relevance. It is a franchise born into Creamsicle-hued failure that has grasped for sustained competence ever since. They won the Super Bowl in 2002, but they have not won a playoff game since while cycling through six coaches. The Buccaneers have made the postseason just twice in that span, and not once since 2007. They play in the third biggest city in Florida. One of the franchise’s signatures is the pirate ship inside their stadium.
And now their quarterback is Tom Brady, the most accomplished professional football player of all-time, maybe the most glamorous athlete on the planet. This is not Johnny Unitas in a Chargers uniform. It is Beyoncé selling out Sheboygan.
The initial daze of TB-to-TB has not worn off. At some point reality will sink in and - in the hopeful event global circumstances allow for it – football will begin. Brady restarting his career after two decades with the New England Patriots unleashes a fusillade of fascinating issues, questions and possibilities. Tampa Bay is scheduled to host the Super Bowl next year, and so Brady’s primary goal will be to make the Buccaneers - yup, the Bucs - the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium.
Will Brady really make the Buccaneers a contender? It should not be taken as a matter of fact. Brady helmed a lousy offense in New England last season, and while the weapons around him were somewhere between below-average and unacceptable, he was not blameless. He will be 43 next season, unchartered territory that makes projection an impossible task no matter how pliable he may be or how few nightshades he consumes. He remains a jitterbug in the pocket, agile and able to buy time, but his dearth of mobility stands in contrast to the way the position is headed. Could a No. 133 draft pick be the ideal replacement for the 199th?
With Tom Brady all but assured of moving on to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, barring an unforeseen snag, the New England Patriots will be starting someone other than No. 12, the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL draft, at the position. At the moment, that new starter will be No. 4, Jarrett Stidham, although the team may take a look at other options, such as Jameis Winston, Cam Newton or Andy Dalton, for instance.
For now, though, Stidham is the next man up.
Here’s some of what we know about Stidham, who was Brady’s backup last season.
Stidham will turn 24 in August, the month in which Brady will turn 43.
The 133rd pick of the 2019 NFL draft, Stidham spent his rookie season backing up Brady, just as Brady started his career on the bench watching Drew Bledsoe.
Stidham stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 215 pounds (Brady comes in at 6-4, 225).
Born in Kentucky, Stidham attended high school in Stephenville, Texas, and committed to Texas Tech before changing his mind and heading to Baylor. He started three games and left when Art Briles was fired in 2016. He spent a semester at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, and didn’t play football, instead practicing with a local high school football team. Then he went to Auburn. With the Tigers, he had victories over No. 1 teams Georgia and Alabama in an impressive span during his redshirt sophomore year. Without a solid running game as a junior, he regressed. Still, in two seasons, he completed 63.6% of his passes for 5,952 yards and 36 touchdowns. At the college level, he passed for 7,217 yards and 48 touchdowns.
Although he threw only 13 interceptions in college, he had just seven touchdown passes, with five interceptions, in SEC games in 2018. He left college before his senior season.
In New England, Brady has given his backups little chance at game-day experience, save for the 2008 season that Brady missed because of a knee injury suffered in the first quarter of the first game.
Bill Belichick just allowed him to walk out of the building. That never counts as an endorsement.
But the majority opinion among peers and competitors seems to be that Brady is still Brady, and he will lift the Buccaneers to new heights. Pro Football Focus graded Brady as the 10thbest quarterback who took at least 20 percent of his team’s snaps. One NFL coordinator who faced Brady last season suggested any struggles emanated from the rest of the Patriots’ offense.
“I still think Tom is a top QB and believe he is the type of guy that will make all players around him better,” the defensive coordinator said.
The most appealing aspect of Brady heading to Tampa Bay is envisioning how he will perform with skill players who are not just adequate, but elite. At the end of last season, Brady’s best receivers were Julian Edelman and Mohamed Sanu, both of whom fought injuries. His tight ends, Benjamin Watson and Matt LaCosse, were invisible.
The Buccaneers will provide Brady an arsenal of receiving options that will rank among the best and deepest he has ever had. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin could be the best wide receiver duo in the NFL, and Evans will immediately become the best deep threat Brady has thrown to since Randy Moss. Tight end O.J. Howard, a former top-20 pick, has never been fully activated, but with Brady at the controls he could become a star.
There is plenty of smoke about Antonio Brown reuniting with Brady in Tampa Bay, but those rumors may be overblown. Brown is still facing legal hurdles and remains on the commissioner’s exempt list, meaning he likely faces a suspension if he joins an NFL team. But other available receivers will be eager to catch passes from Brady, which means remaining free agents - Emmanuel Sanders? Robby Anderson? - may now add Tampa Bay to their list of preferred destinations.
Brady will play for Coach Bruce Arians, which on the surface is an elegant fit. Arians has guided Carson Palmer and Ben Roethlisberger to some of their best seasons, and in Palmer he showed how he could shepherd a quarterback through the final stage of his career. Arians’s system relies on deep passing, which in Brady’s hands may open room underneath for Godwin, Howard and second tight end Cameron Brate to operate.
But there are broader questions about Brady joining a new team than how the offense will function. Brady has played in the same system and lived in the same culture - both of which he helped cultivate - for his entire career. How will he adjust elsewhere? The answer is unknowable, but it will be central to his success or failure.
The hivemind of Brady, Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels made things possible for the Patriots that were not for other teams. They could adjust quickly, with the barest of communication, because of shared history and a common understanding. When the Patriots beat the Rams in the Super Bowl, they relied on a set of plays they had not used in years, but they added them on the fly because they all had the same points of reference. Brady and Edelman could explain a universe about the opposing defense with a glance or subtle hand sign. Brady played on a different mental plane, a crucial factor to his brilliance and longevity.
It’s not about whether Belichick is a smarter or better coach. Arians is a great coach, but developing that kind of shared expertise requires time - years and years of work. It is folly to guess what kind of offseason NFL teams will have, but Brady and Arians will certainly have less than they would under normal circumstances to create a system together. Brady is not at an age at which he can rely on his physical ability, but he may have to do so more than he has in years.
The marriage of Brady and Arians will be contrasted by Sean Payton and Drew Brees, the tandem now standing directly in Brady’s path. Brady and Brees will square off twice per season in the NFC South, one of the most appetizing side effects of Brady’s decision. Brady has feasted on the AFC East for his entire career. In a new place, he’ll find another alltime great in his own division, along with Teddy Bridgewater (who went 5-0 as the Saints’ backup starter last season) and Matt Ryan (who won an MVP four years ago). Brady can no longer pencil in 5-1 or 6-0 in division games.