Bucs HC Bruce Arians After Brett Favre Criticism: 'Tom and I Are Fine'

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians addressed Wednesday the recent questions he's faced pertaining to his relationship with new Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.

Arians, who publicly critiqued Brady following Tampa Bay's 34–23 loss to the Saints on Sunday, said that he believes he has a healthy relationship with the six-time Super Bowl winner. 

"Tom and I are fine. I don't really care what other people think. So it's just what he and I think," Arians said. "We left the stadium fine. We showed up today fine. There ain't nothin' to talk about."

Following Sunday's loss, Arians provided an honest assessment of Brady's two interceptions.

"One was a miscommunication between he and Mike [Evans]," Arians said. "He thought Mike was going down the middle—it was a different coverage—Mike read it right. He should have been across his face, but Tom overthrew it. The other one was a screen pass with an outlet called. He threw the outlet and it was a pick-six. Bad decision."

On Tuesday, Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre said that Arians was "barking up the wrong tree" in publicly critiquing Brady. 

“I think the last person you want to call out after the first game of the year is Tom Brady,” Favre said on SiriusXM NFL Radio, via NBC Sports. “Now maybe they had a mutual truce going into the game, going into the season, ‘Hey, I’m going to be hard on you. I want the guys to know we’re going to treat you the same even though technically I’m not, so are you OK with it?’ If they have that truce, great.

“If not, I think you are barking up the wrong tree. Dissension could easily enter quickly.”

Brady completed 23 of his 36 pass attempts Sunday for two touchdowns and two interceptions. But despite the early struggles, Brady appeared to bring a boost of confidence to his teammates throughout the offseason. 

"From Scottie Miller to O.J. Howard, the coaches and front office are seeing jumps they hadn’t previously, at least in part as a result of Brady’s presence," The MMQB's Albert Breer wrote in late-August. "And as I heard this, I kept thinking about how, in New England, skill players would arrive from elsewhere and, if they clicked with Brady early, pretty quickly put up big numbers." 

Tampa Bay hosts Carolina this Sunday in Week 2.