Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has made news this season for pretty much all of the wrong reasons.
Brady, 45, opted to return for a 23rd season in the league after initially announcing his retirement. He’s dealt with some very personal issues in a public forum and is leading a struggling Buccaneers team that’s currently under .500.
Following last week’s blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers, a report surfaced that Brady has opted to go rogue with the team’s offensive game plan. This is to say, Brady makes changes to the game plan that coaches, offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich included, don’t see until kickoff.
“The night before each game, Brady runs a separate meeting with the Bucs’ skill players during which he goes over the game plan, makes tweaks to assignments and formations and provides a revised blueprint — one which first-year head coach Todd Bowles, offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and the rest of the staff are left to discover in real time once the game begins.”
Report from Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle on Tom Brady
Well, this didn’t sit well with the seven-time Super Bowl champion. Brady was asked about this report during his week-of press conference ahead of Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“No. I have no idea. I mean, anybody can write anything, and say whatever they want. So, I’m not gonna respond to every. Next question,” Brady told reporters.
Things are not functioning well for Brady and the Buccaneers’ offense. They were held to a single touchdown in a 35-7 loss to Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers last week. That seemed to be the low point of Brady’s brilliant career given that he was going up against a rookie quarterback making his first ever NFL start.
Related: Sportsnaut’s NFL QB rankings
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ drama threatens to derail season
Tampa finds itself at 6-7 on the season. It ranks 28th in the NFL in scoring at just over 17 points per game. For his part, Brady has thrown all of 17 touchdowns in 13 games despite leading the NFL in both completions and pass attempts.
The backdrop here are rumors that Brady is not happy about Leftwich as the team’s offensive coordinator and play-caller.
“From what I’ve heard, they were hoping maybe Byron Leftwich would get a head coaching job so Brady could have more control over things as far as playcalling goes,” former NFL QB Brady Quinn noted recently. “He hasn’t been overly impressed with that. So maybe that’s part of it; there’s some frustration there [with Leftwich playcalling].”
Brady didn’t respond to this specific report. But it seems that there’s a rift between the all-time great quarterback and his suddenly-embattled coordinator.
Related: Tom Brady and impending NFL free agents under the most pressure
Despite all of this, Tampa finds itself in first place in the awful NFC South with four games remaining. There’s still time to turn this around.
If that doesn’t happen, Brady has made it clear that he’s leaving all options on the table pertaining to his status as a free agent this coming March. It’s looking less and less likely that this would include a return to the Buccaneers.