09-08-2021, 02:33 PM
(09-08-2021, 02:14 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: What changed other than Tom Brady? They had a 2nd year in a new defense. That's generally when you see the big change. Just look at the Bengals in 2007 were the 24th scoring defense. Zimmer comes and they are the 19th scoring defense in 2008. Then 2009 happens and they are the 6th scoring defense and go to the playoffs.
You focus on the 2020 changes, but there were huge 2019 changes that just took time to all gel together in a new defense. They added Ndamukong Suh and Shaquil Barrett, they drafted Devin White. None of that was because of Brady.
So what changed for the Bucs? They went from the 29th scoring defense to the 8th scoring defense. Tom Brady's intangibles didn't make the defense become a top-10 defense. TWO 2nd Team All-Pro LBs along with a bunch of great pass rushers all in their 2nd year in the system did that.
But sure, focus on what they did a decade ago as somehow proof that the 2020 Bucs wouldn't have been a good team without Brady even though those weren't the same players or coaches and thus completely irrelevant.
There was no winning without Brady. That's not just a claim, it is a fact. You're shooting the messenger lol.
It's an interesting theory that they all came together at the right time- and the right timing is ultimately every team's goal- but there's no way to prove that. There are far more teams whose Master Plan never materializes than there are those like the Bucs who manage to catch lightning in a bottle. And I mean, that they finished 29th in scoring defense in 2019 is not somehow proof that they were bound to finish in the Top 10 last year lol. Come on now. All we know for sure is that they won 7 games with largely the same roster. The rest is speculation- not just in terms of why they improved as a team, but also as individual players.
Now, you could say that their development was inevitable, but there are plenty of holes in that argument. For one, Shaq was just a guy before 2019, when he blew up the league with 20 sacks- yet the Bucs only won 7 games then. It was only after Brady got there (and Shaq's production slipped) that they became a winner. it's another case where contradictions abound. There is no straight line in how they advanced to the next level other than Brady joining the team.
