'It's still kind of surreal': Buccaneers writer Carmen Vitali details the Tom Brady effect in Tampa Bay

[Miles]

As the Broncos approach the season, we're chatting with reporters who cover each of the team's opponents. We continue with Carmen Vitali, a staff writer for Buccaneers.com.


For a look at all angles of the Broncos' Week 3 matchup, click here.


Aric DiLalla: Could you take me back to March in terms of the reaction around the organization after signing Tom Brady and what he's expected to bring to Tampa?


Carmen Vitali: "I think the overarching feeling by everyone was just a sense of disbelief. I don't know how much the current climate played into it, not being able to have a press conference with him, actually have him in the building [and] see him in Bucs gear, his Bucs uniform. None of it felt real for a really long time. But I think that the biggest thing was it already shifted the dynamic. To have someone like that with that much experience and that much invested in another franchise jump ship — no pun intended — to come to Tampa, I think it really gave a lot of the guys a confidence boost in a lot of ways. It was like 'We have a great team, and now people might know that we have a great team.' So I think everyone's really excited to learn from him. [It's] the attitude and the work ethic that he brings in addition to the experience. I know that obviously our receivers are super excited, our defense is even really excited just to know that they have that kind of guy on the other side of the ball. But yeah, it's still kind of surreal in a lot of ways."


AD: How has the process gone of Brady learning a new system with Bruce Arians after spending so long in New England?


CV: "From what I've heard, everything has been fine. I think everyone heard the story of him accidentally walking into somebody else's house when he was going to pick up the playbook from [Offensive Coordinator] Byron Leftwich, so I think it maybe got off to a little bit of a rocky start. But anything that Bruce has said about him, anything Jason Licht our GM has said about him, obviously he's the consummate pro and they're not worried about him picking anything up or understanding any sort of scheme that he's now having to learn. From everything we've heard, which again is probably not much, … it's been good so far."


AD: Maybe the bigger surprise was Rob Gronkowski being traded to Tampa Bay before the draft. What are the expectations for him? Is he the clear-cut starter there at tight end?


CV: "In some ways, yes. In some ways, no. Just because I don't think you want to necessarily have him shoulder the load — at least not initially. He has spent a year out of football. When we got on to talk to him for the first time on Zoom, he said that he hadn't really picked up a football in a long time and then a couple months before the whole coming-out-of-retirement thing happened, he threw the ball around with Tom. That was the first time he had touched it in almost a year. He's obviously one of the greatest tight ends to ever play the game, so I'm not worried about his ball skills or anything like that. And obviously playing with a guy like Tom Brady, you're going to work through anything you have to do to get back up to speed. I mean, I don't want his arrival to overshadow the tight end talent that we already have. O.J. Howard, Cam Brate and then even when you look down the line at like Anthony Auclair, who was primarily used as a blocking tight end. Even in training camp last year, I remember seeing him really starting to focus on his hands and pass-catching ability. There were some catches that I saw him make that I was like, 'Wow, he's a viable threat in the passing game.' And even down to Tanner Hudson. That position group is so deep that even if Gronk is the bona fide starter, you don't need to put the entire tight end game on him. You've got a ton of guys to back him up, and I think that you're going to see a lot of two- and even three-tight-end sets out there. The Bucs probably put out more three-tight-end sets than most people realize and two-tight-end sets. O.J. Howard got just as many snaps if not more last year than he ever has. His production wasn't there, but he's being used in different ways. That's kind of the point of him developing his game more. You're going to see a lot of tight ends, I feel like. People think that Bruce Arians doesn't use them, but he just uses them in different ways. So we'll see what that ends up looking like."