Bruce Arians Blames Tom Brady For Buccaneers' Slow Start To The Season

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Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians doesn't think the team's coaching staff deserves too much blame for the slow start to the season. Instead, Arians believes Tom Brady deserves much more criticism than he's received.

Many fans and some in the media were pointing the finger at offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich for the team's early struggles. Arians doesn't believe that criticism was completely fair.

The former head coach recently explained why Brady is the one to blame, at least for the most part.

“I don’t think it was fair to Byron,” Arians said, according to JoeBucsFan. “Nobody is going to say that Brady was playing bad, but he was playing bad."

"We also had growing pains on a young offensive front and we weren’t running well. There comes a time as a play-caller when you’re losing yards running the ball and you say, ‘Forget this, I’m putting the ball in Tom’s hands.'"

Bruce Arians went 36-19 as the head coach of the Bucs from 2019-2021.

Bruce Arians Calls It Like He Sees It

Arians sticking up for a fellow coach shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise, nor should his harsh yet honest words about Brady.

BUCCANEERS COACH BRUCE ARIANS REBUFFS REPORT OF RIFT WITH TOM BRADY

The 70-year-old tells it as he sees it, and what he saw was the greatest quarterback to ever do it not exactly playing up to those standards.

While Brady and the Bucs sat at 3-5 two weeks ago, they've earned back-to-back wins heading into a bye week before taking on the Cleveland Browns on November 27.

For the season, Brady has thrown for 2,805 yards, 12 touchdowns, and just two interceptions.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.