The Buccaneers Look Like Contenders, Even With Tom Brady Now in the Broadcast Booth

The former QB had a response for Baker Mayfield, but the team’s play on the field should be the real story.

Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers got out to an early lead in a comfortable win over the Eagles. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Tom Brady called Sunday’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers–Philadelphia Eagles game with a bit of that former high school MVP returning to his alma mater energy, with notes of back in my day we practiced twice a day, wore thinner helmets, walked uphill both ways and cooled down by drinking the sweat collected from our own socks. I also detected a few subtle jabs at Baker Mayfield, though I’m willing to chalk that up to Brady still trying to figure out when to talk and what to say, and me being a shameless pot-stirrer.

But the Brady-Mayfield spat, which, for the uninitiated, resulted from Mayfield commenting on the tightness the Bucs allegedly felt from having Brady around during his time there, and then Brady responding during Sunday’s game with, “Stressful was not having Super Bowl rings. … If I wanted to have fun I’d go to Disneyland with my kids.” That comment did bring a worthwhile thought to mind in the middle of Sunday’s 33–16 beatdown of the Eagles in Tampa (strange flex from Brady, by the way). 

Brady was always viewed as a godsend to the Buccaneers’ roster, but we may just be realizing how good that surrounding cast was. Good enough that, after four weeks, I don’t feel silly at all suggesting that this team could win the Super Bowl again with Mayfield instead of his predecessor.

The Buccaneers had a lot going for them Sunday. The Eagles came from the Northeast to a game in which the on-field temperature felt like 105 degrees. They had been receiving intravenous fluids since Saturday to help them combat dehydration, and the two players who have been responsible for 60% of Jalen Hurts’s passing yards—A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith—were both out with injuries. 

That said, the Bucs have had a few unignorable moments this season in which they have shown the hallmarks of a Super Bowl–caliber team, and we saw them again Sunday in yet another early-season signature win. Just before halftime, for example, the broadcast camera showed what Hurts looked out at on a third down against Todd Bowles’s defense. Nearly every person on the line of scrimmage looked like he was coming on a blitz, then upon the snap, a passive nickel corner came screaming at Hurts while the rest of the line dropped back. Hurts could barely eke out a checkdown pass and, instantly, the receiver was swarmed by a pair of defenders.  

O.K., you’ve all seen disguised blitzes. You’ve seen solid situational run defense or a pass rush that can bail the Buccaneers out of an impending comeback like it did on Sunday when Lavonte David strip sacked Jalen Hurts. But, another new version of this defense that has seen turnover still has an answer for the opposing quarterback as he hits the third step of his drop on nearly every passing snap. One thing that’s especially unique to this iteration of the Bucs is that on the other side of the ball, many of the complementary run plays tied in with the passing game are not only effective but museum painting gawk-worthy. There is an idea of what the Buccaneers’ identity is, and if an opponent plays into Tampa’s traps, it can be nearly impossible to make it out alive. That’s something we say about Super Bowl teams. 

Unique to this team is the sheer length of time it has been good, despite needing to transcend massive change. The Buccaneers were good with and without Brady. They were good with and without Bruce Arians. They are now good with and without Dave Canales. And so on. While I doubt some of Brady’s commentary—the offense runs through Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, or Baker throws the ball so hard all the time—was a passive-aggressive recognition of that, it’s something I like to tell myself because, again, shameless pot-stirrer. Genetics. That sort of thing. 

We are a long way from Super Bowl week in New Orleans, obviously, but the idea of a trip to New Orleans in February does not seem out of whack for a team that has now beaten the Eagles, Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders. The win over the Commanders looks better in hindsight, just like the loss to the Denver Broncos doesn’t look as egregious after the Broncos stunned the New York Jets on the road in East Rutherford. Extrapolating this outward, of course, has some fascinating consequences. It changes the way we think about the Buccaneers and the process by which they have backfilled the roster as their core players reach the peak of their prime and beyond. And, if this keeps going, maybe it changes, just a very little tiny bit, the commentary around Brady. Wouldn’t that be something?