In the 2021 regular season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the NFL’s best offense by Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted metrics. They ranked first in Offensive DVOA, first in Passing DVOA, and fifth in Rushing DVOA. They ranked fourth in postseason Offensive DVOA, but that was seen as more of a slightly negative blip after an overall season in which Tom Brady completed 67.2% of his passes for 7.3 yards per attempt, 5,916 yards, 46 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, and a 100.7 passer rating.
Brady ranked second in DVOA (FO’s play-to-play efficiency metric), and first in DYAR (FO’s cumulative efficiency metric), so when he retired this past offseason and then decided to return, we all expected that, even through there may have been personal issues tied to that decision we couldn’t accurately factor in, we were about to see another season in which Brady was at or near the top of his game, and the Buccaneers’ offense would cook again.
