“He Was Playing Bad”: Former HC Bruce Arians’ Assessment On Tom Brady Backs OC Byron Leftwich’s Early Criticism on TB12

Tom Brady and the Bucs have found a new life in this second half of the season, as they won back-to-back games. Recently, they beat the Seahawks, the top team in the NFC West division, in Germany to win their fifth game of the season. Now, they are back in playoff contention, which looked impossible after the end of the first half of the season.

Speaking about the first half of the season, the former coach of the Bucs Bruce Arians recently opened up about the performances in the first half. Notably, many people blamed the Bucs’ offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich for their offensive struggles. However, Arians straightway blamed Brady for his poor showing.

Bruce Arians blames Tom Brady and his poor performances for the Bucs’ early woes in the season

In a recent interview, Arians said, “I don’t think it was fair to Byron… Nobody is going to say that Brady was playing bad, but he was playing bad… We also had growing pains on a young offensive front, and we weren’t running well. There comes a time as a play-caller when you’re losing yards running the ball, and you say, ‘Forget this, I’m putting the ball in Tom’s hands.”

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Notably, there were plenty of rumors about Leftwich getting fired. Leftwich was also critical of Brady earlier in the season. However, after winning a close game against the Rams, Brady and Leftwich hugged pretty tightly at the end of the game. Many still believe that the OC’s job was on the line before the Rams match and Brady saved him from getting fired.

Despite blaming Brady, the current senior football consultant for the Bucs, Arians is keeping faith in the 7-time Super Bowl champion to deliver in the second half of the season. “I’m really optimistic about the rest of the season… First off, we’re getting healthy. Tom smiled at practice last week for the first time this season. He’s going to be fine. I love the swagger we played with Sunday, especially defensively. It’s been missing,” Arians further said. 

As per Arians’ comments, Brady was finally smiling during last week’s practice sessions, which is a massive sign for the Bucs. They are currently at the top of the NFC South division and certainly have a pretty decent chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

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