Bruce Arians: Tom Brady Has His Swagger Back

Bruce Arians, perhaps the only person who could get away with it, says Tom Brady was playing bad this season.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally got themselves going for the season with an impressive win over Seattle on Sunday.

Bruce Arians regularly criticized Tom Brady when he was the head coach. Now an adviser, he’s not afraid to tell it like it is.

Bruce Arians also defended offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, who took a lot of the blame for the early season inconsistency. 

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Despite their poor form, the Bucs actually find themselves in an advantageous position to make the playoffs. They lead the NFC South and have the easiest remaining schedule in the division.

If they continue to play like they did against the Seahawks, a postseason surge should be relatively straightforward. They ought to if the revitalization of Tom Brady wasn’t just a one off.

“I’m really optimistic about the rest of the season,” he said. “First off, we’re getting healthy. Tom smiled at practice last week for the first time this season. He’s going to be fine. I love the swagger we played with Sunday, especially defensively. It’s been missing. Seattle’s a good running team, but that kid (Kenneth Walker) went nowhere.”

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“I don’t think it was fair to Byron,” Arians said. “Nobody is going to say that Brady was playing bad, but he was playing bad. We also had growing pains on a young offensive front and we weren’t running well. There comes a time as a play-caller when you’re losing yards running the ball and you say, ‘Forget this, I’m putting the ball in Tom’s hands.’ “