Captain Fear
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- Mar 20, 2019
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There aren’t many questions left for Tom Brady to answer on the football field.
But there are still some reasonable concerns about how he’ll fit stylistically into Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians’ offense.
Specifically, whether he can still be an effective downfield passer as he enters his 43-year-old season could that last small shred of doubt that Brady will latch onto in his constant effort to find motivation.
For their part, the Buccaneers don’t appear to be concerned.
Via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht said during this morning’s visit to ESPN that he didn’t think arm strength was an issue.
“Well, the tape to us showed that he had plenty of arm,” Licht said. “We felt that he had the ideal arm for Bruce and his system. He can still throw it deep. We felt the mobility was still the same as he’s always had, which he’s never been able to out-run anybody but he’s good in the pocket in terms of eluding pressure with his poise and his instincts.
“We did not see a decline in his arm talent whatsoever and in fact we felt like he could play for over two years for us. Hopefully, that’s the case.”
As an indicator of arm strength, yards per attempt is a crude measure, but it can be used to explain the difference in what quarterbacks are asked to do.
Brady averaged 6.6 yards per attempt last year, compared to Jameis Winston’s 8.2 per attempt for Arians. Part of that comes from the lack of downfield targets for the Patriots last year, while Winston was throwing to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.
Brady last topped 8.0 yards per attempt in 2016, and his career average is 7.5. But those numbers have fluctuated over the years, so it’s not a straight-line regression.
No person who throws things for a living is going to have the same strength at 43 as they did at 33 (specifically late in a season), but the Bucs don’t think their new quarterback is going to be unable to take advantage of these new targets.