Google News HC Todd Bowles confident Buccaneers can do well even without Tom Brady
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Head coach Todd Bowles believes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can be a great football team even after Tom Brady's retirement. After Brady retired, the Buccaneers were left without a starting quarterback for the 2023 season. They addressed the quarterback position in free agency, signing former No 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield.
“When you replace a player of that magnitude, first of all, you don’t replace him. You lose aura. You lose the expectation of being great. That doesn’t mean you can’t be great. You just have to do it more as a team.
We did it as a team when he was there, but he was such a great player and a great person that you focus all on that. And now that that is gone, the perception is that everything else is gone when really it isn’t. We have a lot of good players on our team on both sides of the ball.
We have some pieces to fill, but we have a lot of good football players on our team. And we just have to understand that and not go with the so-called outside narrative and do what we have to do to win ball games," Bowles told NFL Media's Judy Battista, per Pro Football Talk.
Can Mayfield replace Brady well?
In 2020, Brady left the New England Patriots after 20 seasons and won the Super Bowl with the Buccaneers in his first season in Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers still have a quality team, with some big names on the roster.
Last year, Mayfield didn't do well in his stint with the Carolina Panthers but he did have some encouraging performances with the Los Angeles Rams. For Mayfield, the Buccaneers were probably the best option as they give him a chance to start and also play well with a strong receiving corps.
Mayfield is on the clock to prove that he is still a starting-caliber quarterback in the NFL and he can't allow himself to mess up this chance.
