The Buccaneers’ web series “In The Current” is a must watch for Bucs fans everywhere. If you haven’t seen it, imagine a way to get a glimpse of your team - ala “Hard Knocks” - only shorter with one major focus.
This week’s focus? The adjustments of Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski to being Tampa Bay Bucs. There some focus on Ali Marpet’s role as the Bucs’ NFLPA rep and the COVID-19 regulations the union worked on with the NFL, but the episode mostly centers around Brady.
You get to see some of his process and gain some insight into how he’s approaching this strange off-season having joined a new team for the first time in two decades while having to learn the playbook at an accelerated rate.
Brady realizes that, even at 43, he’s the new guy. He’s a leader, a champion, an MVP winner - but that doesn’t mean he’s himself quite yet. Something he’s painfully aware of;
“It’s the first time I’ve been the new guy. The first time I’ve had to study my playbook, learn all my coaches’ names. There’s nuances to all those moments that maybe I’ve taken for granted for a long time because you’re kinda on autopilot being in the same place. You know your ride to work. You just kinda show up there.
A lot of it comes to confidence as a player and your ability to know what to do and know how to do it. I think when you learn a new system, you still don’t know all the different thing that you want to know about a certain play or scheme.
Part of being quarterback is you can’t really yell at anyone if you’re the one screwing up. So, I don’t like to screw up. But, I’m also learning things for the first time so I do screw up, which is a very frustrating thing for me. You still have to find way to make the right plays.”
As the video says in the introduction - this is no longer a season of hope. This is a season of expectation. And Brady isn’t going to rest until he knows this system as well as the one he ran in New England. That’s the kind of work ethic he has, that’s the level of passion that drives him. And his team has his back.
Not only that, but the expectations from Bruce Arians are sky high. He told this team what they’re facing, what he expects, and capped it off with this little nugget;
“You can’t trust anybody if you can’t look in the mirror and trust that f-----. Is the guy in the mirror doin what it takes? We ain’t got but so much time this year. It’s different. Honest to God, I looked out there today - I been in this league twenty-seven years - I never seen so much talent on one field.”
The expectations are set - and they’re set high. If there are two brains that can come together for the first time in such a crazy offseason and make magic happen, they belong to Bruce Arians and Tom Brady.
You can check out the entire episode here or in the player below.