Tom Brady’s 2022 Buccaneers season is eerily paying homage to 2019 Patriots

Accidents. A stalled offense. Loads of frustration. In just a few key methods, Tom Brady’s season with the Buccaneers resembles his last season with the Patriots.

Tom Brady is shaking his head at one other failed third-down conversion. It’s not the identical Brady on the sector, and for some, the blame comes down onerous on the forty-something quarterback.

The place’s the quarterback who simply led his group to a Tremendous Bowl? The one who might seemingly make it work with any and each receiver?

The higher query is that this: Are we in 2022, or 2019?

Apart from sharing the well-known quarterback and the cachet that comes with it, each Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots followers now have one thing else to bond over: a disappointing season with Brady on the helm. The numbers aren’t fairly, however neither is the truth that the issues are advanced and interconnected, making it reductive to push the quarterback towards early retirement.

Comparable although they’re, there are distinctive variations between Brady’s final season with the Patriots and his present one with the Buccaneers. The first similarity is that in each cases, the chemistry with receivers is off and the groups lacked tight finish assist, making it a problem to finish throws and run a productive offense. Additionally, each of those groups have struggled mightily with out the assistance of Rob Gronkowski, a key chess piece who made the cross and run perform easily.

Right here’s the place the 2 seasons overlap and the place they differ, with the 2022 Bucs ideally hoping for a distinct consequence.

Tom Brady and the 2019 Patriots

Trying on the schedule alone, it’s amusing that anybody would have panicked over the 2019 Patriots. The group completed the 12 months atop the AFC East with a 12-4 report, boasting a league-leading protection that dubbed themselves “The Boogeymen.” The group started the 12 months with an 8-0 report for the third time in franchise historical past, getting into the month of December with a 10-1 report.  That’s when the wheels started to fall off the Patriots marketing campaign.

The Patriots misplaced three of their 5 video games that month, ending the common season with an uncharacteristic loss to the 4-11 Miami Dolphins at residence. The Patriots went on to the playoffs solely to lose to the 9-7 Tennessee Titans within the Wild Card spherical, which noticed Brady wrap up his New England profession with an interception. It was a bitter finish to a season that fell aside bitterly within the colder months.

The Patriots broad receiver core, well-known for making stars of neglected gamers, relied on Julian Edelman and some trades that didn’t pan out effectively sufficient. Edelman was flanked by Phillip Dorsett, Josh Gordon and Demaryius Thomas. Jakobi Meyers, the efficient successor of Edelman, was an unestablished rookie on the time. So too was Damien Harris, nevertheless it was James White and Rex Burkhead and Sony Michel who performed extra outstanding roles within the run recreation. Ryan Izzo and Benjamin Watson performed tight finish, however neither was in a position to replicate the Gronk impact.

Within the last three games of the season, two of which registered as wins for the Patriots, Michel rushed for 89 yards, 96 yards, then 74 yards in every respective recreation. In those self same three video games, Brady accomplished 15/29 passes, then 26/33 and 16/29. Passing for 128 yards, then 271 yards and 221 yards was markedly completely different from the 341-yard, 264-yard and 306-yard video games that opened up the season’s passing assault.

Rob Parker, who has made a profession hoping Brady’s would quickly take a nose-dive, questioned whether or not or not Brady’s cliff had finally come that December.

Lengthy earlier than Parker introduced the “destruction” of Brady, Bleacher Report’s Mike Tanier had completed all of it the best way again in January 2019, just a few weeks earlier than the Patriots gained their sixth Tremendous Bowl. Brady’s stats through the 2018 season, Tanier surmised that Brady’s numbers declined as a result of he “is getting old.”

“He posted his highest interception complete and lowest landing fee since 2013 this season and his fewest yards per try and yards per recreation and lowest passer score since 2014,” Tanier noticed.

The Patriots’ reliance on the run that 12 months backed these numbers, and since Brady is an anomaly, it was tough to suss out whether or not or not it was Brady’s inefficiency or a damaged system. However Brady might nonetheless make passes, a indisputable fact that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had been in a position to precisely assess once they watched the tape. Lars Anderson’s “A Season In The Solar” opens with how Brady’s transfer to Tampa got here to be, and Tampa’s scouts rapidly realized that the seasoned quarterback nonetheless had it.

A 12 months later, the Bucs gained their second Tremendous Bowl and Brady’s seventh. However the subsequent two seasons would show far more tough to make it to the highest.

Tom Brady and the 2022 Buccaneers

In a sport largely birthed out of the love of the run, the 2022 Tampa Bay Buccaneers are failing miserably at soccer’s most important offensive part. Regardless of wielding Leonard Fournette, a seasoned veteran who has confirmed to be simpler than Sony Michel, the Bucs are posting traditionally abysmal numbers with regard to their run recreation.

NFL analyst Warren Sharp makes key observations, notably that the Bucs must name simpler performs on early downs, a degree that journalists have repeatedly proposed to Bucs teaching employees in current weeks. Per Sharp, when the Bucs get in third and lengthy conditions, they flip into former New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold below Adam Gase. It’s that dangerous.

And it creates issues down the road, too. The Bucs are one of many worst groups within the NFL on the subject of purple zone alternative as a result of a excessive punt fee, which is what occurs when a group retains failing to transform on third and lengthy.

As soon as once more, Brady’s offense isn’t working, however the Bucs have confronted plenty of obstacles this season which have made a foul scenario inconceivable. Shedding Ryan Jensen and Ali Marpet has devastated the offensive line; shedding James Pierre-Paul and Ndamakong Suh — and now Shaq Barrett — has devastated the defensive position. And let’s not neglect that after once more, Brady is with out Gronk, who typically prolonged his huge palms to transform these third and longs and persistently drew double protection.

Devin White has been openly criticized for jogging to sort out a participant and for not sticking to his project, however in White’s protection (not less than for the jogging critique), the Bucs protection is disproportionately stored on the sector as a result of the offense is failing.

Identical to in 2019, Brady’s throwing isn’t the issue. At the very least, it’s not the one downside, and it’s positively not the supply of all these issues. There’s no noodle arm, only a battle to collectively pool noodles collectively and devise an efficient gameplan with what they’ve bought.

The one factor that’s working within the Bucs’ favor is that in contrast to the 2019 Patriots, the 2022 Bucs are seeing their struggles early on. They do have extra losses than the 12-4 Patriots, however as they proved in 2020, hitting a sizzling streak late within the season might imply they squeak into the playoffs and sure towards the large recreation.

If Tom Brady and the Buccaneers can discover a approach to make it work within the coming weeks, perhaps they’ll guarantee historical past doesn’t repeat itself.