As we wind down the 2022 NFL season we have to ask the question we’ve all been thinking for the past couple of years. Is this the year Tom Brady will finally retire? The 45 year old All Pro, MVP and greatest Quarterback of all time has accomplished everything. He has won the Super Bowl 7 times, he is a 5x Super Bowl MVP and has been voted to the Pro Bowl 15 times.

Yet with all the accomplishments the 2022 campaign can’t be what he envisioned when he decided to unretire and suit up again for the Bucs. Off the field he and his super model wife Gisele Bündchen announced that they were getting divorced back in October. On the field the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have struggled all season especially on the offensive side of the ball. They are barely hanging on to a playoff spot thanks to the lowly NFC South. It seems that we ask ourselves this question every year but now there is real momentum that Tom Brady may finally retire.

Back in May of this year it was announced that Brady signed a massive deal with Fox Sports to be it’s main color analyst whenever he decides to hang it up. This unprecedented move will be the richest ever TV deal and he could make up to $25 million per year as an analyst. Shelling out big money to former NFL players is not new (See Tony Romo) but giving them a massive deal before they retire is certainly rare. Now the question becomes when will we start seeing Tom Brady calling big time NFL games on FOX?

On the field we have seen things we almost never see from Brady. Indecisiveness, lack of accuracy and lack of success on his deep throws. If you take a look at his 2022 Next Gen Stats so far you will see just that. A lot of success on the money throws but struggling with the intermediate and deep throws. The offensive line can certainly take some of the blame but even when Brady has a clean pocket he is still missing layups. Sure he has had some vintage late game comebacks, the Saints game comes to mind but overall you can see the struggles.

The switch from Bruce Arians to Todd Bowles has to not be overlooked either. Arians is one of the NFL’s greatest offensive minds. Bowles is a defensive coach and he likey stays out of the offensive side of the ball. He is a solid coach but you can see the hit the offense has taken without Arians.

Regardless of what has caused Brady to regress the fact is the Bucs are still in a playoff race and could make a run. Even if that happens, which at this point seems unlikely, it seems Tom Brady will finally retire at the end of the season. Next up will be the broadcast booth and you can bet the GOAT will thrive in that role for many years to come.

The post Will Tom Brady Finally Retire? appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Khari Demos

In one of the surprise moves in an already topsy-turvy offseason, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians left his post behind, ending a coaching career that spanned 40-plus years throughout the NFL and college football.

Arians is most notably known for his time as the Bucs head coach, as he joined forces with Tom Brady to win the franchise’s second Super Bowl title following the 2020 season. He also guided the Arizona Cardinals from 2013-17, taking the team to the NFC Championship Game in 2015.

But some things people may have forgotten are his prior stints as an assistant coach. He was able to elevate some of the most talented arms in league history outside of Brady ”” Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, and Carson Palmer.

His NFL head-coaching life may have been short-lived, but so was the late great John Madden’s. But the big question now; is Arians a Hall of Famer? It’s something that needs to be discussed.

For starters, we should discuss Arians’ Super Bowl rings. Yes, he did claim one as head coach of the Bucs, but he also contributed to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ most recent title teams (2005, 2008) as a wide receiver coach and offensive coordinator, respectively.

But his biggest selling point may be his work with some of the game’s best QBs. Arians worked with Manning as his QBs coach in his first three seasons in the NFL (1998-2000). After a shaky rookie year, the future Hall of Famer had two Pro Bowl seasons with Arians, which also included two second-team All-Pro nods, as Manning led the NFL in TD passes (33) and passing yards (4,413).

In both the 1999 and 2000 seasons, the Colts had top-five ranked offenses (4th in ’99, 3rd in ’00).

Wondering what Manning did after Arians left for Cleveland? He regressed a bit, amassing 42 interceptions over the next two seasons, and going 16-17 record-wise (including the playoffs).

While as OC of the Browns, Arians did not have a ton of offensive talent during his stint there (2001-03), but he was a major factor in the franchise getting back to the playoffs for the first time in since its return to the NFL in 1999. The Browns’ loss to the Steelers in the 2002 Wild Card round would prove to be Cleveland’s lone postseason appearance until 2020.

Arians would then join the division-rival Steelers, as they went 15-1 in their first season with him on the staff. The team ultimately lost in the AFC Championship game to the eventual-Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots, but Pittsburgh would get it back with the Super Bowl XL win over the Seattle Seahawks.

As a WRs coach in Pittsburgh, Arians mentored Hines Ward to a Pro Bowl season in ’04, as well young future Super Bowl heroes in Plaxico Burress and Santonio Holmes. And once he took over as OC, that’s when the Steelers began to see the emergence of Roethlisberger into superstar territory.

In 2007, Arians’ first season as Steelers OC, Big Ben had his first 30-TD pass season. While working with Arians (2007-11), the Miami of Ohio product was named the ’07 Comeback Player of the Year and earned his first two career Pro Bowl nods.

Arians helped names like Willie Parker and Heath Miller become fan favorites while with the Steelers. He also groomed Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown to become Pro Bowl-level receivers. The former Temple head coach also was instrumental in Pittsburgh making a run to Super Bowl XLV ”” the proud franchise’s last appearance in the big game.

After leaving Pittsburgh to go back to Indy, the 2012 season may be Arians next-best achievement on his resume. With head coach Chuck Pagano having to step away from the team after four games due to his cancer treatments, Arians nobly stepped in as interim HC, lifting the Colts to a 9-3 record at the helm (11-5 overall) and a berth in the Wild Card round.

Arians was acknowledged as the 2012 Associated Press COY due to his contribution’s in Pagano’s absence.

Just like he did so many years prior for Manning, Arians was a key figure in Luck landing his first Pro Bowl selection and setting several NFL and Colts records for a rookie QB.

Then as head coach with the Cardinals, Arians had a record of at .500 or better in four of his five seasons with the team and won his second Coach of the Year honors there (2014). Arizona had two playoff berths under Arians and in 2016 won its first division title since going back-to-back in 2008 and 2009. The loss to the Carolina Panthers in the 2015 NFC Championship game was only the second conference championship appearance for the team since moving to AZ in 1995, and was just the fourth time in team history that the Cardinals made back-to-back postseason appearances.

BA’s 50 wins in AZ (including the postseason) are the most in franchise history.

Arians’ run in Arizona was notably coupled with the revival of Palmer’s career. The former No. 1 overall pick had a 91.1 passer rating and averaged 279.7 passing yards while working with BA. But the 2015 was Palmer’s finest ”” the Heisman Trophy winner led the league with a 76.4 QBR, had a 104.6 passer rating, 35 TD passes, 11 INTs, and 4,671 passing yards in leading the Cardinals to a 13-3 record.

Once BA got to Tampa, he had another reclamation project with Jameis Winston, and although people will remember that the fellow former Heisman winner threw for a league-high 30 INTs, he also led the league with 5,109 passing yards and 33 TDs. That cleared the way for Brady to come in, as he won his seventh ring with the team in his first year there, before claiming the Bucs’ first divisional title since 2007.

And even with the great Brady under center, Arians took him to heights he’s never been. The GOAT had never had back-to-back 40-TD pass seasons in his career before coming to Tampa and he also set a new career-high for passing yards last season (5,316).

Outside of that, BA also was the oldest HC in NFL history to win the Super Bowl (68). He also has the highest winning percentage in Buccaneers history (.651), nine seasons as an HC/OC where he had top-10 scoring offenses, and another seven with top-10 total offenses.

Now Arians’ regular season winning percentage is tied with Paul Brown for 18th all-time (.624). And his 80 career wins in the regular season are also intriguing, as he’s tied with fellow Super Bowl winners Jimmy Johnson and Brian Billick. But Arians has the nod over both in career winning percentage, as they’re both tied at .556%.

Billick may not get into the Hall due to such a short time working in the NFL, but Johnson did just get inducted in 2020, which was most likely due to his two Super Bowl wins in 1992 and 1993.

Speaking of the postseason, Arians’ postseason record may be another feather in his cap. BA’s .667 playoff winning percentage is tied for 15th all-time for NFL head coaches. That’s a higher figure than a bevy of HOF coaches ”” Hank Stram, Curly Lambeau, Bill Parcells, Marv Levy, Bill Cowher, John Madden, Tom Landry, and Dick Vermeil, to name a few.

Arians is also one of only 12 coaches all-time to be named AP Coach of the Year on multiple occasions, joining Don Shula (4), Chuck Knox and Bill Belichick (3), George Halas, Allie Sherman, Mike Ditka, George Allen, Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells, Dan Reeves, and Ron Rivera (2).

The biggest drawback to BA’s head coaching career would be the length of time. He only had eight seasons as a head coach, which would be on the lower end for an HOF coach. But that should not be the end all be all for Arians. Other Super Bowl era coaches have made it to the Hall after short tenures.

Madden, Johnson, Vince Lombardi, and Bill Walsh all made it in with 10 or fewer seasons as an HC. And although each may have a certain piece of their respective resumes that elevates them above Arians’, BA’s achievements aren’t that far behind.

Three Super Bowl wins in total, two COY awards, and holding respective wins and winning percentage records with two franchises that have losing records all-time in the NFL. When you stack it all up, Arians’ case is stronger than you’d realize.

The Bucs have already announced BA will be inducted into their Ring of Honor this coming season. And that honor could be coming at any moment for the Cards to do the same. So do those add to his already stellar resume? Yes.

But do they make him a sure-fire Hall of Famer? That’s up for debate. All I know is, if I had a vote, I’d have no problem sending Arians on his way to Canton.

The post Is Bruce Arians a Hall of Fame-worthy head coach? appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

by Scott Mangan (Twitter: @fantasyspatula)

1974

Fade into a bar in Blacksburg, Virginia, 1974. The bartender — a recent Virginia Tech graduate — is a straight shooting, football loving, blue collar boy from York, PA.  Son of a machinist father and a candy factory working mother.  

Cogs and sugarcane.  Just the kind of mindset a bartender needs.  Grind those gears, keep the machine running, but also know when to charm some drunkard out of descending into darkness.  Any bartender worth his or her weight in whiskey can connect and de-escalate with the best of them.

On this particular evening in Blacksburg, VA a rough and tumble, unstable man who lived in a cabin amongst the Blue Ridge Mountains stumbled down into the bar and declared, “Tonight, I’m going to drink and I’m going to fight!”  The bartender promptly greeted him with a, “Well, then, let’s make the beer free for you, but go fight somewhere else.”  

After a couple of hours of imbibing booze the drunken time bomb from the Blue Ridge Mountains began harassing women at the bar. The young bartender — who weeks earlier had been the starting QB for the Virginia Tech Hokies — now found himself having to ask the man to leave. The inebriated ignoble yokel responded by standing up, pulling out a .22, sticking it into the bartender’s gut and saying, “Throw me out now.”

“At that moment, with the gun pointed at me, I realized that perhaps coaching would be a better career path,” Bruce Arians would later recount.

He never stepped foot behind a bar again.  It’s pretty safe to say he made the correct career choice.  

1985 

11 years later and 2,692 miles away in the middle of the San Francisco State University campus.  28 year old offensive line coach Andy Reid is selling hot dogs in the university commons.  He’s dealing frankfurters just to raise enough money for the school’s football program to afford pads and helmets.  

Since offensive line coaches barely got paid, Reid would umpire baseball games just to get by. Three games per night (after family dinner) for $10 bucks a pop just to make ends meet for his wife and two kids.  

They were poor, but it didn’t stop the Reids from having the entire SFSU offensive line over every week to watch film and study. Tammy Reid’s Mississippi Mud Pie was always on the menu.  It didn’t matter that they couldn’t afford to entertain like this.  He just wanted to include them in his family.  He wanted to create that family energy with them.  He had to.

1982

Three years earlier in Alabama, 30 year old Bruce Arians was sitting across a large wooden desk from the legendary college football coach Bear Byrant.  After working for one season as his running backs and passing game coordinator Arians was hired by Temple University to be their new head coach.  While saying goodbye, Bryant had a piece of parting advice for Arians. 

“Coach them hard,” Bryant said, “and hug them harder later.”  Bear Bryant passed away just three weeks later.  It was the last time the two ever spoke, but Bruce would later say, “Before he left us, he gave me my guiding philosophy.”

“From that day forward I would try to find out what makes a player tick and continually build on the player’s strengths and not prey on their weaknesses””just like Bryant did.”

And it’s obvious that Arians took the advice Bear Bryant gave him to heart.  If you read about him and listen to Bruce Arians talk, one thing constantly rings through: the guy loves people and he’s willing to be real with anyone from any background. 

“Bruce can talk street with anyone, and if he needs to, he can be the most intellectual guy in the room,” says current Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, who played for Arians at Temple in the mid-1980s and was his defensive coordinator at Arizona in 2013 and ’14. “Because of his unique background, he can reach absolutely everyone on a football roster, and that’s the key to building chemistry and building a winning team.”

The stories of how he unlocked potential with mind games are countless.  He’s been called a quarterback whisperer for most of his career.  Think about it: he nurtured the early careers of Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Andrew Luck.  He helped revive late career Carson Palmer.  He’s helped 43 year old Tom Brady back to the Super Bowl.  

The secret? He’s always been able to understand that there’s a human behind the helmet. 

“My quarterbacks have to be a member of my family, and that has nothing to do with football,” Arians says. “Trust is everything. We have to connect on a deep level in order to really be able to build something together. Trust brings a higher level of communication and a higher level of commitment and accountability. We have to care for one another. It’s all about family, family, family.”

The same guy who had that .22 pressed up against his belly back in Blacksburg, Virginia.  The guy who met his wife in 9th grade.  The guy who was the first white player to ever room with a black player in Virginia Tech history.  The guys who’s staffs have been littered with old friends and ex-players. The guy that listens and cares for the people he meets.  He’s been creating a family everywhere he goes. 

1974

Years before he was selling hot dogs to undergrads in the commons of San Francisco State, Andy Reid was just a sports obsessed Mormon child who grew up only a mile from Hollywood Boulevard.  His father was an artist.  His mother: a radiologist.  He followed around his older brother Reggie like a puppy dog.  He regularly united all the neighborhood kids for games of football.  

Later on he lettered in basketball, baseball, and football at Marshall High School in Los Angeles.  The same High School where the movie Grease was filmed and would later be home to Leo deCaprio and Will.i.am.  But way before their time Andy Reid was wreaking havoc on the courts and fields of Marshall High.

Marshall’s football and basketball coach, Dick Kiwan, recalls coaching Reid on the basketball court, “I put him in at forward and he had four fouls in less than 2 minutes,” Kiwan said laughing. “I remember pulling him out because he was just dribbling down the floor and running over people. I remember taking a timeout and saying, ‘Andy, what are you doing?’ and he looked at me like, ‘What?’

“The competitive juices were flowing so much from leaving football and getting into basketball, he couldn’t help himself.”

That ferociousness was left on the field though.  He was a kind friend to many.  Including his coaches.  To this day he’s still close friends with Coach Kiwan and many from his high school and college years.

“I still talk to my basketball coach, my football coaches””I talk to all these guys from high school. Half of them raised me; half of them were in my brother’s class. They saw me as a baby.”

“One of the things we’ve always said about Andy that is so hard to find, is that Andy never forgot where he came from,” Kiwan said. “He maintains his relationships with the guys he played with in high school and even his old coaches.

“It’s something that you just don’t find with someone in his position. You just don’t find that.”

2007

Bruce Arians had just been promoted front the wide receivers coach to the the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.  He and starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger did not really get along at the time.  “He thought I yelled at the wide receivers too much,” Arians said. Bruce knew that the key to success would be connecting with Roethlisberger.  

“Ben lost his mother when he was young, and that was hard on him,” Arians said. “I never want to be a father figure to my quarterbacks. I’ve got my own kids. I want to be the cool uncle you’d like have a drink with.”

Bruce invited Ben to his lake house down in Reynolds Plantation, Georgia. The two spent the day golfing, drinking beers, and talking life. “We built our communication on the golf course,” said Roethlisberger. “I even bought a house down there to be close to Bruce.”

Roethlisberger went on to have the highest rated season of his career that year.  And the two went on to win a Super Bowl together just a few seasons later.

But Arians isn’t just a softy with a penchant for connecting over brews with his players. He can be quite demanding and downright nasty.  

“Like (Bear) Bryant, I would be hard on my players when we’re on the field. But that’s just coaching. The players need to know that I’m probably going to talk to them real ugly out on the field, but that has nothing to do with them personally or with their personality. Their football can suck and they can still be good people. Don’t take it personally. It’s coaching, not a criticism. Don’t worry if I’m hard on you on the field. It’s business, not personal,” Arians said.

“And I vowed that day after leaving Bryant’s office that when I walked off the field with my players, I would hug the ones I had MF’d only moments earlier””just like Bryant did. I’d tell them we’re going to get our football perfect, we’re not going to beat ourselves, and now that we’re done with football for the day we can talk all night long about our personal lives. And I would care about all my players, from the starting quarterback down to the third-string tight end.”

“More than anything, I hope this is what I’m remembered for.”

2019

Kansas City Chiefs backup quarterback Matt Moore had just joined the team after training camp.  In the quarterback meeting room he was getting his first glimpse of the relationship between Head Coach Andy Reid and 3rd year quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

“We were sitting in a meeting room and coach Reid was talking about a “read” and where the [receivers] were, and they were in a triangle formation, and literally at the same time as coach said, ‘there’s a nice little triangle here,’ there was a pause, and then at the same exact time [Mahomes and coach Reid] both said, “isosceles,” Moore laughed. “And I was like, ‘What the hell, I mean, it blew me away. There was no story behind it. There was nothing for them to both think of that word at the same time. It was so strange.

“At that moment, I knew these guys were tight.”

Former Head Coach Bob Stull — who hired Andy Reid back in the 80’s to coach his offensive line at UTEP — recognized Reid’s connection with his players early in Reid’s career.

“He had a way that you always knew he was on your side,” Stull explained. “He’d get on you, but you knew you probably deserved it. He was never a yeller, a screamer or harsh like that, but he’d get on you pretty good if you weren’t doing the right effort and learning what you’re supposed to be learning. The offensive line guys really liked him a lot because, again, he was a great teacher. He wouldn’t let you get away with anything.

“He worked them hard, but he could also laugh. He could see something funny, they could make fun of him about something and he was all right with that. He had a really good sense about him like that.”

2021

We’re on the eve of Super Bowl LV.  Two head coaches with 85 years of coaching experience between them square off for the ultimate prize in professional football.  These are two men with storied histories and countless friendships. And they’re on the verge of creating a new chapter in their lives and careers.  

I can’t remember the last time I watched a Super Bowl where I was rooting for both coaches.  Sure, it’ll be nice to see Andy Reid get a second Super Bowl win in a row (maybe the beginning of the next great dynasty), but if come late Sunday night Bruce Arians is raising his first Lombardi Trophy as a head coach, it’ll not just be a victory for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It will be a victory for every person that has grinded through the years of their life encouraging, evolving, accepting, and enjoying the people they’ve loved along the way.  It’ll be a victory for every one of us that has been that bartender in the dive pub at 2 in the morning, with a .22 caliber pistol stuck in our guts being asked who we want to be and what we want to do with our lives. What we want to live for.  

Yes, NFL football is a gigantic monster of a machine, but for any machine to work even the cogs need to be cared for.  Both of these head coaches know that.  They’ve lived it and they’ve built their own personal machines through hard work and love.  That recipe is tried and true.  And the resulting concoction will be on display on the field come Super Bowl Sunday night.

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