Tom Brady has explained his stance after criticising his teammates efforts so far this season after a slow start to the 2022 year.
Less than two years removed from winning the Super Bowl, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers started their first eight games with a 3-5 record, and looked to be heading towards a lost season in Brady's 23rd year in the NFL, after making the surprise decision to return to the team following his 40-day retirement.
Whilst Brady himself has performed well all year, it's fair to say that he's been let down with some poor play around him, with his offensive line struggling to protect him along with subpar wide receiving play, with Chris Godwin, Russell Gage and Julio Jones all failing play as would have been expected, along with losing Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown from the previous two seasons.
This has lead to losses on the field, with issues off-the-field in Tampa Bay, with Brady openly criticising his teammates 'effort levels on gamedays' on his "Lets Go" podcast last week after their win over the Los Angeles Rams.
He said: "So correcting our mistakes, improving our effort — which probably is the most embarrassing part of our team, our effort level on game day. And that’s something we better fix."
And Brady has since clarified his stance after making those comments. Speaking to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, he said: "What can we control? We can certainly control our attitude, our effort. I think everything has been below the line this year.
"We’re 4-5 (now 5-5 after beating the Seahawks). … I don’t think there’s any reason to be happy about anything we’ve done. Obviously, we’re not playing to our standards — we’re not there from an effort standpoint, execution standpoint, emotional standpoint. We’ve got to figure it out."
After these quotes, Tampa Bay secured a much-needed win in Germany over the red hot Seattle Seahawks, getting their season back on track heading into the bye week with a 5-5 record.
Tampa Bay were dominant in the win, with Seattle scoring two late touchdowns to make it a one score game, as the Buccaneers ran the ball effectively along with Brady throwing for 258 yards and two touchdowns.
And speaking after the win over the Seahawks, when asked about his team's effort, he said: "I thought we had a good week of preparation. Obviously a different week, but we prepared very well, and we were prepared to play today. We came out with a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm.
"We ran the ball hard, we played very tough, very physical. We covered kicks, we returned some kicks, ran the ball very well, stopped the run. Our defense stepped up, the offense played good. It was a good team win."
