Tristan Wirfs opens up on if he can replace Tom Brady as Buccaneers leader

• NFL

All-Pro offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs, 24, hopes to be able to step up in the post-Tom Brady era and be one of the leaders on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When Brady signed with the Buccaneers in 2020, he ended the team's 12-year playoff drought and instantly delivered them a Super Bowl win.

In his three seasons in Tampa Bay, Brady was the leader of the team. But with Brady retiring after the 2022 season, it's now time for another player to step up and be the leader of the team. Wirfs, who came to the NFL in 2020, has had a very good start to his pro career.

In each of the past two seasons, Wirfs made the Pro Bowl and earned an All-Pro selection.

Wirfs hopes to replace Brady as the leader of the Buccaneers

"Obviously, I'm not even close to that level to do that now, but I want to say a couple things -- how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking.

Just how practice went -- just little things. I've been trying to do that more. Trying to be somebody that the younger guys can kind of lean to or ask me questions about whatever. It is weird, I still feel young, but going into Year 4, I've been to the Super Bowl, been to the playoffs, been to the NFC Championship, I've done stuff," Wirfs said on the Vikes Verified podcast, via CBS Sports.

Wirfs is one of the best players at his respective positions in the NFL. Now, Wirfs is working on also becoming more vocal and leading other players on his team. "I've really been doing my best this offseason throughout all these OTAs and throughout this minicamp just to be a little bit more vocal.

Because I feel like even through college, I've never been an extremely vocal leader. I've always been kind of a lead-by-example kind of guy – go almost under the radar. I feel like now it gets to a certain point where now I kind of got to take over," Wirfs said.