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Bruce Arians apparently gets shocked easily.
Less than a month ago, Arians said he’d be “shocked” if Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady retires. Today, Arians said that a return in 2022 by the now-retired Brady would “shock” Arians.
That’s what Arians told Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, presumably without any hint of awareness that Arians used the same word when assessing the chances that Brady would call it quits.
The situation in Tampa is fairly simple. If the Buccaneers acquire a veteran quarterback via free agency or trade, it may be impractical to bench him for Brady, if/when Brady returns. Thus, if he wants to play again, the Buccaneers would have to cut or trade him.
Brady is smart enough to know how it works. If he wanted to engineer his exit in a way that looked like he wasn’t actively trying to finagle a path out of Tampa, isn’t this exactly how he’d do it?
Regardless, Arians already has been shocked once this year. He’s quite possibly setting himself up to be shocked again.
