Jason Licht, in retrospect, says he should’ve seen it coming. During the Buccaneers GM’s recurring Friday meetings with his coach, Bruce Arians, the subject would come up more regularly. And then there was this dinner, about a month ago, right around combine time, when Tampa Bay still wasn’t sure what it was doing at quarterback.
The Bucs’ Plan A, of course, was holding out hope that Tom Brady would come back for a third year with the team, and 23rd in the NFL. But no one really knew. Which led Arians to consider everything.
“He’s got such loyalty to his assistants,” Licht said on Saturday morning. “He wanted to promote one of his assistants to head coach, in this case Todd [Bowles]—and he thinks the world, and we all do, of Byron [Leftwich]. And we’re all very confident Byron’s gonna be a head coach, maybe next year. But we started talking about that, he’d said,
“Out of loyalty, of course, but he also wanted to make sure his coaches had a chance. And I know that he was probably thinking if we won six, seven games, we would probably open the search up next year—no guarantees.”
So Arians thought hard on that, and Brady made his decision on March 14. A day or two later, on that Monday or Tuesday (Licht can’t remember exactly which day), Arians showed up in the GM’s office with some news. What he’d said over a few drinks a couple weeks earlier had foreshadowed a shocker.
Arians told Licht the time to pass the torch was, yes, now. His exact words, as Licht remembers them, were, “I don’t care about more wins or even another Super Bowl. What’s more important for me is having my guys set up for success.” Licht, who first met Arians during the coach’s interview with the Cardinals nine years ago, got a little emotional. Arians as well.
“And I think at that point, he called Tom,” Licht said. “And I talked to ownership and let them know what he was planning on doing.”
The Bucs resolved to keep the circle of those who knew tight—it was Licht, Arians, Brady and ownership, basically—and were able to keep their secret for more than two weeks.
On Wednesday, the world found out, and the NFL had its latest stunner in an offseason full of them. By then, though, the guys in charge in Tampa Bay had plenty of time to digest a development that seem to arrive out of left field for everyone but those in the circle. And they think, with Bowles in charge, there’s a pretty good chance they’re better for it.
