Peyton Manning has a theory about Bucs’ amazing turnaround with Brady

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Peyton Manning has a theory about Bucs’ amazing turnaround with Brady

Remember when Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were in danger of missing the playoffs?

Brady’s first season with the Bucs after 20 years with the New England Patriots got off to a bumpy start: Tampa Bay dropped its season opener to the New Orleans Saints and stumbled into its Week 13 bye at 7-5.

The Bucs haven’t lost since and will aim for their eighth consecutive win Sunday in Super Bowl 55 against the Kansas City Chiefs. So, how were Brady and the Bucs able to turn their fortunes around? Former nemesis Peyton Manning shared his thoughts with 9News’ Mike Klis on Saturday.

Curran: Brady’s last Patriotic duty? Defend the wall vs. KC

“He’s done a great job adjusting,” Manning told Klis of Brady. “It’s been a challenging offseason with the pandemic. He has found a way to get on the same page with his receivers. They’ve improved throughout the season.

“It’s something I can relate to. It wasn’t all smooth in my first year, and it wasn’t all smooth for Tampa. But they had a good team in place. It took a while to form their chemistry, and he deserves all the credit for his hard work and adaptability and his leadership. His stamp is all over that team.”

Brady has established a culture of winning with a franchise that hadn’t made the playoffs since 2007 prior to his arrival. But Manning, who worked with Bruce Arians when the Bucs head coach was the Indianapolis Colts’ quarterbacks coach, believes it took more than Brady’s leadership to turn things around in Tampa.

“The teams that really got into the hunt this year had veteran quarterbacks, veteran coordinators, had some chemistry together. Brady was kind of the exception,” Manning said. 

“I think Tampa figured out they were better off running a lot of his plays. Took them a while to figure that out, but with the pandemic offseason, not having much time. It’s just not easy.”

Manning’s theory is similar to that of JoeBucsFan.com’s Ira Kaufman, who told our Tom E. Curran on a recent Patriots Talk Podcast that Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich essentially handed Brady the keys to the offense after the bye week.

With the freedom to call his favorite plays and a supporting cast that was far superior to the “weapons” he had with New England in 2019, Brady kicked the Bucs’ offense into high gear. The 43-year-old threw 10 touchdown passes and just one interception over the final four games of the regular season with a 126.9 passer rating over that span.

After a challenging offseason constrained by COVID-19, Brady has thrived under Arians’ “hands off” approach, which we’d imagine differs from his experience with Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels and the Patriots.

Tampa Bay’s offense will need to bring its A-game Sunday to keep up with Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs offense, which led the NFL in yards per game this season.