A New Challenge Arises For Arians
Bruce Arians is about is about to enter his most trying season an an NFL head coach.
While there's talk of surrounding the BUCS as Super Bowl contenders months ahead of a single snap being taken, Arians is facing, quite possibly, the highest level of expectation he's ever had in the NFL.
He's been gifted one of the most talented offensive rosters in the NFL. From having 2 potential Hall Of Fame level players in TE Rob Gronkowski and six-time Super Bowl QB Tom Brady to potential breakout RB Ronald Jones, the Buccaneers offense is downright scary. On paper, that is.
There's a helluva whole lot that has to go right for things to pan out on the field. And the expectancy is there.
In full swing.
However, that's not unprecedented for a Bruce Arians-led team. In 2016, the Arizona Cardinals opened to +800 Super Bowl odds coming off a season in which they made it to the Conference Championship game against that team from Charlotte, NC.
In contrast, as of this writing, the 2020 BUCS are looking at +1300 odds to make it to Super Bowl 55 coming off a losing season.
What is going to be unprecedented for Arians is the possibility of his two newest high profile acquisisitions being the alpha dogs of the Team and having his philosophy/ tactics coming into question. Not a pleasant thought.
Since becoming a head coach in 2014, Arians has been the image his team has been modeled after. Tough. No nonsense. Cool. Collected.
And by most measures, Arians has been a solid coach in the NFL. He's been called an offensive genius and QB guru. It's been widely accepted and often repeated. For better or worse. However, those notions shouldn't go without question. I've definitely questioned it in the 2019 season.
“I just took it on purpose. Yea..that FG is easier back 5 yards. No sense hurrying..We wanted to move the ball over to the middle and make it an easier FG.”
Arians and his staff are now hosts to two of the most successful players in recent memory. They both come from a winning franshise that established a level of play and conduct on and off the field as "The Patriot Way". It's fair to wonder how much of that is making its way to Tampa.
Already, there's been mention of a compromise of offensive philosophy and practices between Tom Brady and Arians. To some level, that's expected of a good head coach. To take what a player does well and implement it into the game plan is just good sense. Right? (O.J. Howard was not avaialable for comment)
Starting at :55 to 3:10
“...You’ve got a lot of perfectionists out there. You’ve got a lot of guys putting a lot of pressure on one another. That pressure is also put on the coach.....””
At the level of success in which Brady and Gronkowski have had, there's a slight possibility their way overrides whatever the current staff's idealogy may be.
As a head coach, Arians has never been met with opposition when it comes to questioning whose team it was. In 2020, that could change.