Tampa Bay have brushed off a recent story that Tom Brady had been planning to move to the Miami Dolphins before he came out of a brief retirement to rejoin the Buccaneers this off-season.
Stories in recent weeks claimed a plan had been in place for Brady to join the Dolphins as an executive before coming out of retirement to replace Tua Tagovailoa as the team’s starting quarterback. The Dolphins also allegedly intended to appoint former New Orleans head coach Sean Payton to run the team. A pre-determined decision to appoint Payton would have contravened the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate for major coaching vacancies. The NFL is currently being sued by a number of Black head coaches who say teams gave sham interviews to minority candidates with no intention of appointing them.
On Tuesday, Tampa Bay general manager Jason Licht said he had not discussed the story with Brady. “No, we haven’t had those discussions,” said Licht. “The only discussions I’ve had, we’ve had with Tom has been, he came back and we’re excited about this year and we’re excited to get going.”
Licht added that the stories had not disturbed the Bucs’ preparations with Brady, head coach Todd Bowles and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich for the new season, when they are expected to be contenders to reach the Super Bowl from a weak NFC.
“I make of it … chatter, just like you said. We’re focused on putting our team together here with the draft and we’re all excited, we’re all in lock-step here - Tom, Todd, myself, Byron – the entire coaching staff – on this season,” said Licht.
There had been speculation that Brady decided to come out of retirement after head coach Bruce Arians, with whom he is said to have clashed, stepped down for a role in the Buccaneers front office.
“The philosophy hasn’t changed,” Licht said. “It’s just been meeting more with Todd more now as the head coach – more one-on-one and in some group settings too. Bruce has still been involved. He’s still been in our meetings. I meet with Bruce periodically and he’s gonna be involved here as we put the final touches on our draft too. Our philosophy hasn’t changed. We still wanna bring in really good players.”
