The Tampa Bay Buccaneers face an offseason of uncertainty, including with Tom Brady. On the off chance he does hang up the cleats, there’s a team the Buccaneers should call.
After putting all their chips on the table to bring back all 22 starters and some change in their quest to “go for two” as Super Bowl champions, Jason Licht, Bruce Arians, and the rest of the Bucs organization now find that the chickens are starting to come home to roost. After being knocked out in the divisional round by the Los Angeles Rams, and offseason that is expected to be a roller coaster of emotions is set to begin.
Naturally, before the dust even settled there was already speculation on the future of quarterback Tom Brady. It’s become almost tradition as soon as his season ends, since he is getting up there in age, to put it mildly. Brady is currently 44, and would be 45 in the 2022 season, and didn’t exactly do much to temper expectations when most recently asked about his future.
Of course, there’s an excellent chance that the most competitive human being on the planet that has said he wants to try and play until he’s 50 years old, doesn’t retire at all, so many with chalk this up as a moot point. The thing is, it is far from a moot point. The Buccaneers did all they could to capitalize on their Super Bowl window and “win now”. Now, they find themselves in a bit of salary cap hell, and an highly unlikely chance to keep everyone in Tampa Bay.
Let’s take a look at the current landscape for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
With this all being the case, it is now time to start planning for the future. Yes, if Brady sticks around their Super Bowl window is of course still wide open. However, teams that don’t prepare for the future are doomed to fail for a long time. Just look at the Buccaneers for decades. For years, they were a franchise constantly searching for the one player, or the one move that would turn their franchise around, when in reality it took a lot of planning and multiple steps in order for that to happen. So when it comes to the quarterback situation, Brady will eventually retire, and Arians himself has even expressed the teams interest in “opening door number two“ for their future quarterback.
The San Francisco 49ers once again find themselves in the NFC championship game, and should be one of, if not the first, teams the Buccaneers should call about a quarterback.
The 49ers find themselves in an interesting situation. Having traded up to number three overall in this past year‘s draft to select Trey Lance, instead the 49ers are back in the NFC championship with Jimmy Garoppolo under center. Should the Buccaneers call the 49ers about trading for a quarterback, there’s two scenarios that could happen first.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers land Jimmy Garoppolo after a postseason loss.
The first scenario, and probably the most likely, is that the 49ers and Garoppolo lose either in the NFC championship or in the Super Bowl. That would give the team reason to try and trade him, in favor of Lance. This might seem disgusting to some, but the buccaneer should be on the phone about this. Yes, Garoppolo is limited. However, there is absolutely ZERO denying that the guy is a winner. So far in San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers are 35-15 including playoffs when he is starting quarterback. When they have literally anyone else starting quarterback, Shanahan and the 49ers are 8-28 the general consensus is that Garoppolo is holding Shanahan’s office back, but with a record disparity like that, are we positive it is not the other way around? It’s something to think about.
Of course, Garoppolo has been thriving in the 49ers run-first system, and that is not exactly the cup of tea of Arians. However, he is no spring chicken himself, so who’s to say that when he inevitably moves on, the Bucs, and potentially Garoppolo, don’t switch to this kind of offensive approach as well? Sidenote, Garoppolo once again coming in as a successor to Brady would really bring things full-circle. #ThisLeague indeed. Speaking of New England, Garoppolo was 2-0 as a starter there for what it’s worth.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers bring in another young gun.
The second scenario, is that Garoppolo when’s the Super Bowl for the 49ers and Shanahan, and almost forces their hand to deal Lance to the highest bidder. Only one team in the Super Bowl era let a quarterback go immediately after winning the Super Bowl, and naturally that was the Baltimore Ravens and Trent Dilfer, and even that came back to bite them.
Should Jimmy GQ win Super Bowl LVI, the 49ers would HAVE to stick with him going forward. If the Bucs trade for Lance, all of a sudden they have the new era parent for Brady, a guy who possesses all the physical tools to succeed in today’s NFL, and would have weapons aplenty to work with. There are far worse succession plans, shoutout to the Roy family, and right now as currently constructed, the Bucs have one. Lance would certainly be intriguing, and a potential upgrade.
At the end of the day, this is not something to stress or worry about, with Tom Brady more likely than not returning. However, even if he does return, it will always be something to think about. Buccaneers fans should watch the 49ers very closely going forward, because their future quarterback may be out there.