Tom Brady is keeping things diplomatic when it comes to his relationship with Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach, Bruce Arians.
Brady has thrown 11 interceptions in 12 games, and Tampa's offense has noticeably lacked cohesion. After starting out 6-2, the Bucs have dropped to 7-5 heading into their bye week.
Tampa Bay fell to the Kansas City Chiefs, 27-24, on Sunday.
Amid the team's struggles, Arians has repeatedly cited the performance of his players, including that of the future Hall of Fame QB.
“[O]ffensively, it’s just a matter of each and every week if the quarterback plays well or not,” Arians said on his radio show last week, via JoeBucsFan.com. “And our job is to make sure he’s comfortable and let him play well.”
Arians has taken a more “air-it-out” approach to play-calling in recent years, which doesn't necessarily blend with the 43-year old Brady's preferred method of quicker, short passing. The seeming schematic rift has fueled speculation as to who is, and who should be, calling Tampa's plays.
Yet, Brady insists things remain all good with the first NFL head coach he's played for not named Bill Belichick.
“I’ve got a great relationship with B.A. (Arians), and we talk every day,” Brady said on Westwood One radio on Monday, when asked about Arians’ habit of calling out players. “I’ve got a lot of respect for him and how he runs the team and so forth.”
Instead, the six-time Super Bowl champion placed blame on the media.
“Any time you lose games, a lot of people want to place blame, especially in the media, and they want to pit one player against another player, or a player against a coach and so forth,” Brady said via Jean Knight of the Tampa Bay Times. “That’s not been my style. … And I just think about it from a player’s standpoint. I always think about what I need to do better, and I certainly haven’t played to my level of expectation, and I’ve got to do a better job, and that’s what it comes down to for me.”
Tom Brady may be just deflecting blame to protect relationships within the Buccaneers' locker room and take the high road with his coach, rather than returning passive-aggressive criticism to Arians.
The Bucs rank 28th in rushing and have strangely disregarded the play-action as a tool to buy Brady some more time when he looks downfield. Still, Brady says he is trusting the process.
“We’ve put in a lot of work in over the last three or four months, and it’s a production-based business,” Brady continued. So when you win, you get to deal with all the great questions and so forth, and when you lose, you’ve got to deal with the questions of why you’re losing and who’s to blame for losing and all that. But when you’re on the outside, that’s just what you deal with. When you’re on the inside, we don’t think like that.”
After the bye, Tampa will host the Minnesota Vikings on Dec. 13.
Follow Us
Subscribe