NFL analyst Cian Fahey feels Tom Brady can help the Tampa Bay Buccaneers push for a place in the playoffs next season.
The six-time Super Bowl winner has signed a two-year contract with the Bucs, after leaving the New England Patriots after a trophy-laden 20 years at Foxboro.
Tampa Bay have not reached the playoffs since 2007 but Fahey told Off The Ball's The Snap that he feels they'll improve by swapping Jameis Winston for Brady:
"The Bucs were on the precipice of the playoffs last year, they weren't a bad team and they weren't a particularly brilliant team but one of their biggest issues was Jameis (Winston) making mistakes at crucial times. If you take those mistakes away...and obviously lots of things change from year to year so you can't simply do that, but I feel the team are in a good situation.
"Then you have to look at the (NFC) division, the Panthers look like they're going to rebuild a little bit, it wont' be an all-out tank like the Dolphins haven't attempted to do, the Falcons look like they're going in a great direction, the Saints are relying on Drew Brees who for the last three years has capitulated at the end of the year. Brady, you can talk about his age, but the two best quarterbacks in that division are both really old and Brady has aged better than any other quarterback.
"Buccaneers fans should feel really good and the Buccaneers franchise should spend a lot of money right even though they don't seem to want to do that."
Fahey feels the acquisition of Brady will likely cause some Tampa Bay fans to revise their opinion of their owners, the Glazers:
"A lot of Buccaneers fans tried convinced themselves that Jameis Winston was this great player despite all of his mistakes and now Brady is there all that just disappears...the Peyton Manning free agency is the only one that can be compared to this Tom Brady free agency and at that time, and I'm sure it's something that people even remember that much any more, the Broncos had just had Tim Tebow and they wanted to get rid of him but the fans loved him and the only way to get out of that contract was to have Manning come along.
It's a little bit similar for the Buccaneers where the atmosphere toward the franchise has completely changed with just one move. It's not even because of how great a quarterback Brady can be for them or how good he is, it's that aura about who his is. He's the easiest player in the league to create a hype video on because everyone absolutely adores him in football circles."
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