The Tampa Bay Buccaneers loaded up the ship to chase an elusive playoff berth that has evaded them for a dozen years.
The biggest addition was obviously Tom Brady, who immediately brought legitimacy to the Bucs' Super Bowl hopes by bolstering an already potent offense with steadiness at the most important position.
The addition of a soon-to-be 43-year-old Brady, who signed a two-year deal, is a play to try to win a ring in a short window. Paired with player-friendly but blunt coach Bruce Arians, the Bucs duo is the ideal fit. But with an aging QB and a 67-year-old coach, GM Jason Licht isn't too worried about more than the season that lies in front of them.
"I don't have a lot of concerns on that right now," Licht told ESPN Thursday night. "We have a head coach that, to be quite frank, isn't gonna be here for the next 15, 20 years coaching the Buccaneers. So I think it was actually a perfect marriage: You've got two guys that have got something to prove; they want to win, they want to win now; they've got the same mindset."
Arians' "no risk it, no biscuit" mindset meshes perfectly with Brady's attitude. The coach, who is night-and-day different than Bill Belichick, was one big reason TB12 moved to Tampa.
"Getting Tom here, quite frankly, started with hiring Bruce last year," Licht said. "I don't know if we would be in this situation right now without Bruce Arians as our head coach. And they're kind of living parallel lives right now; they've got something to prove, and they want to do it now."
The timeline in Tampa is clear: Win a Super Bowl in the next two years. Beyond that, Licht will worry about the long-term future at a later date.
