Can Brady win another Super Bowl?
The Buccaneers are counting on Tom Brady to take them to the Promised Land.
Surrounded by better offensive weapons, and a head coach who is motivated to make the team around him better, the GOAT has put himself in position to get there and vie for championship No. 7 with Tampa.
If he wasn't returning to the Patriots, this was one of Brady's top priorities: to be in a situation that gave him a shot to win again. Given all the talent and firepower on offense, the Bucs qualify.
But is a soon-to-be 43-year-old still capable of taking a team to the next level? Does Brady still have enough left in a tank that should have run out of gas long ago?
In the right situation, you bet he does.
While Brady has shown some signs of decline, he's not ready to be put out to pasture. He's not in the fall-off-the-cliff phase that gripped Peyton Manning at the end.
Brady still has plenty of game left. He may no longer be able to pull out the Superman cape to win games on his own and make up for having inferior weapons, as he did in his prime. But he's still good enough, accurate enough, smart enough and clutch enough, to lift a Bucs offense to greater heights.
Playoff contender
Former teammate Rodney Harrison, now an NBC analyst, is among those who has faith Brady could win again. Or at least make another team a contender. The Bucs haven't made the playoffs in 12 years.
"Tom's not a top-5 quarterback anymore. But I do believe Tom can get it done at the critical moments," said Harrison, when reached Tuesday.
"He'll give a team a great chance of being in the playoffs and going far.
"I think with this new team, this new surge, new offense, new weapons, I think it's going to give him that excitement to get back on the field. Tom can still play."
That's right. He can still play. That's why it was surprising other quarterback-needy teams that are closer than the Bucs to a championship didn't make a legitimate run at Brady.
Where was Indianapolis? The Colts are a quarterback away. But they settled on Philip Rivers because of his familiarity with head coach Frank Reich and his offensive system. The Colts would have been better off with Brady. In the short term, so would the Titans, who instead signed Ryan Tannehill to a whopper of a deal.
The Bucs, reported winners of the Brady sweepstakes, could no longer stomach Jameis Winston's erratic play. No way Brady throws 30 picks this year, as Winston did last season. No way he's as mistake-prone as the former Bucs quarterback. While Brady had the same QBR (53.7) as Winston, his dependability and decision-making alone should give the offense a bump.
"I absolutely believe in Tom's skills. Is it Tom from 5-10 years ago? No," said ESPN analyst Damien Woody. "But he still has more than enough arm strength. His decision-making is still top-notch. And I think Tom is looking forward like, 'Look, 'I'm not at the point of my career where I can elevate guys.' Because that's what Tom used to do at the height of his career. He could elevate pretty much anybody. But that's not him anymore."
He might not be able to elevate inferior players, but he can still take advantage of a good cast, and ignite an offense. While his play dropped off in the second half of last season, yielding his lowest passer rating and completion percentage since 2013, some of that was due to the inexperienced cast of receivers around him.
Not many weapons
With the exception of Julian Edelman, Brady was frustrated by the lack of dependability from that group. And they included Mohamed Sanu, a supposed savior at the trade deadline. A completely new cast in Tampa is going to have to get on the same page in a hurry. That'll require a little more patience from Brady.
"It's going to be exciting. The environment is definitely going to change, I'm just telling you, and the players understand that," Willie McGinest said on NFL Network. "They better be familiar with the regimen and how it's time to work and get themselves ready to play and win, because no one is going to expect anything less. And he's going to pull that out of his teammates which is a good thing."
The collaboration between Brady and Bruce Arians should be fascinating to watch. Will Arians, a guy who traditionally has favored an offense predicated on the long ball, adjust and do what Brady's done best? Will he adapt to Brady's strengths — the short drops and quick reads — to get the ball to the open receiver? We'll see come September.
"If the right coaching staff is in place, he's going to win a lot of games," said former teammate Heath Evans. "He's not just the best that's ever done it. He's an absolute genius. Brady is the GOAT in every form and fashion."