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How Tom Brady fits with the Buccaneers – theScore

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5 years ago

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As unthinkable as it still may seem, Tom Brady is now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quarterback. Brady separated himself from the New England Patriots, whom he helped steer through two decades of unmatched success, in part because he thinks he still has lots to prove.

But can he make things work with the Bucs? Tampa Bay hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2007. During the same span, Brady has played in 24 playoff games and five Super Bowls, winning three. This is going to be … different. But how? And can it work?

It ought to go without saying that Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time. It’s also easy to acknowledge that he benefited from the system with which Bill Belichick surrounded him. This is not to knock Brady or Belichick, but rather to acknowledge that team success is never the product of any single factor. Still, Brady will be 43 when the 2020 season begins (assuming it starts on time), and he’ll also be in a new environment with new coaches and new standards for the first time in his career.

There’s no way to know whether Brady’s body will begin to betray him, or what effect his new surroundings will have on him and vice versa. But it is possible to assess how Brady might mesh with what the Bucs have and with what head coach Bruce Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich are trying to do.

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At first glance, Brady’s penchant for shorter, quicker throws seems as if it would clash with Arians’ predilection for quarterbacks who take deep drops in the pocket and heave the ball downfield. But Arians told NFL Network’s Mike Silver he’d keep an open mind about this, and he’s willing to collaborate with Brady and to adapt where necessary.

Arians has worked with Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, Carson Palmer, Jameis Winston, and Ryan Fitzpatrick, among others. So he knows a thing or two about dealing with different QBs – and differing egos. “We’ll probably meet somewhere in the middle,” he told Silver.

This an important detail. The evidence that Brady’s arm has declined is mixed. In 2018 and 2019, per PFF, his average depth of target was just 8.4 yards. According to Football Outsiders, his percentage of failed completions – completed passes that fail to pick up 45% of needed yards on first down, 60% on second down, or 100% on third and fourth down – ranked 27th in the league (27.9). In addition, Brady’s 6.6% drop in failed completions from 2018 to 2019 was the biggest decline in the NFL.

In isolation, this would seem to indicate that Brady’s arm strength is deteriorating. But he also lacked help these last two seasons. In 2017, when the Patriots had speedster Brandin Cooks to stretch the field, Brady’s average depth of target was 10.4 yards, per PFF. But by 2019, his stable of pass catchers capable of getting open had pretty much vanished, at least after the Pats’ flirtations with Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon came to an end.

FiveThirtyEight’s Neil Paine ran Brady’s top three pass catchers through Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value metric and determined that last year’s trio of Julian Edelman, Phillip Dorsett, and Jakobi Meyers had the lowest AV of any wideout group Brady’s worked with since 2013. Brady was thus forced to hold the ball longer – his average time to throw from 2018 to 2019 jumped from 2.62 seconds to 2.75 seconds, according to Next Gen Stats – and to check down more frequently.

And yet, as the clip ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky put together shows, Brady could still put plenty of zip on downfield throws outside the hash marks – exactly the kind of passes that require decent arm strength:

Bucs GM Jason Licht also talked up Brady’s arm strength in an appearance Monday on ESPN’s “Get Up.”

“The tape showed to us that he had plenty of arm. In fact, we thought that he had an ideal arm for Bruce in his system,” Licht said. “He can still throw it deep. We felt like the mobility was still the same as he’s always had, which, he’s never been able to outrun anybody. But he certainly is good in the pocket in terms of eluding pressure and with his poise and his instincts.

“We did not see a decline in his arm talent whatsoever. And, in fact, we feel like he could still play for over two years for us, and hopefully that’s the case.”

Brady will have better weapons in Tampa Bay than he had last season in New England. Wideout Mike Evans is one of the best in the league, and his combination of size and speed makes him the most complete target for Brady since Randy Moss.

Chris Godwin is another terrific talent. As Sports Illustrated’s Andy Benoit pointed out, Arians’ affinity for using tight split formations – whereby a slot receiver lines up close to the tackles – is ideally suited for pick plays and rub routes across the middle. It’s thus possible to envision Godwin sometimes playing the role Edelman did for Brady on such plays. And Godwin can thrive on out routes; per The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen, he had 19 catches for 223 yards on those routes last season.

The Bucs have a pair of solid tight ends in O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate, which creates another set of options for Brady, Arians, and Leftwich to tinker with. And Arians told reporters last week that the Bucs would “love to have a pass-catching back” to complement Ronald Jones. It’s no secret that running backs were a big part of Brady’s pass-catching arsenal in New England.

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Lastly, there’s the offensive line. Center Ryan Jensen and left guard Ali Marpet both ranked in the top 10 at their respective positions last season in pass block win rate. But the Bucs aren’t nearly as strong on the outside. Tackle could be a position they attack in the draft, though trading with Washington to acquire Trent Williams is another possible option. Why this is important: Brady’s adjusted completion percentage – which factors in drops, throwaways, batted passes, spikes, and being hit when throwing – was 59.5 last season, which ranked 21st in the league, per PFF.

All told, there seems to be enough of a foundation in place in for Brady to play well with the Bucs. He apparently thought so, too, according to what Licht also had to say during his “Get Up” appearance. “It was almost like a recruitment on his part,” the GM said, “telling us why it would make sense for him to come to Tampa Bay.”

It does make some sense, but it’s also going to be different. Brady’s made his living in the AFC East, where every other team has spent the last 20 years largely involved in a clown-car pileup. He’s now in a new setting, and he’ll have to face off twice each against Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, and Teddy Bridgewater. Meanwhile, Father Time will be checking his watch.

Dom Cosentino is a senior features writer at theScore.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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14 hours ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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