The Tampa Bay Buccaneers could move for Jacoby Brissett to succeed Tom Brady and lead the NFC South champions as quarterback.
Last month, Brady walked away from the NFL after 23 stellar seasons, winning seven Super Bowls - six with the New England Patriots and one with the Buccaneers after he joined in 2020. After his announcement, many expected the Bucs to be aggressive in their pursuit of a replacement with a number of big-name quarterbacks available such as former MVP Lamar Jackson.
Tampa still possess one of the better rosters in the NFL which makes the team an attractive spot for any quarterback to land. According to ESPN, Brissett is a name the team could move for.
Brissett would present the Bucs with a low-risk, cheap option under centre while the 30-year-old could battle in an open competition with 2021 second-round pick Kyle Trask. Brissett owns a 18-30 record as a starter in the NFL, but he has experience working alongside Brady from his time with the Patriots.
Many quarterbacks linked up with Brady as a teammate only to move on, with the seven-time Super Bowl champion holding onto his starting role. However, they all tried to soak up as much as they could while they spent time with the GOAT - and Brissett was no different.
After he was drafted by the Patriots in 2016, Brissett was under no illusions. The rookie out of North Carolina State understood his role was to back Brady up rather than usurp him as the Patriots’ starter. He admitted he was a huge fan of Brady when he became his teammate and simply wanted to imbibe as much as he could, saying: “I was that kid that was annoying as hell and kind of just, wherever he went I tried to follow, the places that I could go, and just trying to get as much information.”
At the time, Brady was a four-time Super Bowl champion and had recently led the Patriots to a dramatic 28-24 win over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. Brissett tried to learn from Brady’s example and would have done well to do so - the Bucs quarterback won three more titles in the following five seasons.
Brissett was a member of the Patriots team that engineered one of the greatest comebacks in sports history to defeat the Atlanta Falcons and win Super Bowl LI. He played several games as a rookie to make up for an injured Brady during the regular season, and it earned Brissett a move to the Indianapolis Colts for the 2017 season.
Brissett played in Indiana for four seasons before returning to the AFC East with the Miami Dolphins, sharing time with sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovailoa who struggled with injury troubles. He signed with the Browns ahead of the 2022 season and impressed with his solid play, going 4-7 before Deshaun Watson returned from suspension.
