Tom Brady ended any debate about who deserves the most credit for the long-term success the New England Patriots had during his 20 seasons with the club. Brady left and not only did they miss the playoffs for the first time since 2008 — when he was out with a torn ACL — but they also had their first losing season since 2000 when he wasn’t the starter.
If that wasn’t enough evidence, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ended a long stretch of losing the minute he walked into the facility. This franchise hadn’t made it to the playoffs since 2007 and not only did they get into the tournament, but they also won the whole thing.
Brady was also able to put another notch on his belt by being the quarterback to lead a team to a Super Bowl in their own stadium and then won the Lombardi Trophy in front of his home crowd.
Now looking at the 2021 version of the team, it looks as though nothing has changed — which is a good thing. Tampa Bay returns all 22 starters, something that’s hard enough to do in the NFL without even having a championship team to try and retain.
Their big moves in free agency all revolved around keeping their own but that doesn’t mean they didn’t make some savvy additions. One good move was adding Joe Tryon who gives them a solid rotational pass-rusher behind Jason Pierre-Paul. Another was adding Jaelaon Darden later in the draft, which gives them a player capable of contributing as a receiver, in the run game, and as a return man.
Tampa Bay was the final team standing at the end of 2020 and they stand atop the mountain to start 2021 until someone can prove they’re better.