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If Tom Brady hadn't come out of retirement, Bruce Arians would still be coaching

Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times caught up with the former head coach.

This has been a wild offseason for the NFL and most certainly, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. From Tom Brady going into retirement, Bruce Arians deciding to step down from the head coaching role, and then Brady deciding to come back to the Bucs, it has been a wild one. We of course can’t forget the Brady and Miami Dolphins’ rumors, either. 

Fans in Tampa have been turned left and right with all of the media drama this offseason and we've been able to hear from both sides that Arians and Brady's relationship has been great. Brady mentioned last week in his Thursday press conference that one of the reasons why he came to Tampa Bay was because of Arians. The two have a fantastic relationship, per Brady: 

“He and I have a great relationship. A part of why I chose here was because of Bruce… He knows how I feel about him and that’s the most important thing, and I know how he feels about me.”

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In a most recent interview with Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, Arians mentioned that he would most likely still be coaching if Brady hadn't come out of retirement:

"I was going the other way. I was thinking he wasn't going to play. I was thinking about who are we going to get? Who wants to trade? There wasn't anybody to draft. That was obvious. Me, to the public, I was fine with the two we had: Blaine (Gabbert) and Kyle (Trask). Because I've seen Blaine win with a good team behind him. Had Tom not come back, I probably would still be coaching. I couldn't give Todd that situation."

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It definitely is an interesting comment, to say the least. What does it mean exactly? It's something I'm sure this offseason we'll learn more about but when Arians decided to step down in March, it came as a surprise for a lot of the NFL world. 

Nonetheless, this is now Todd Bowles' team and it seems like things are going well heading into the 2022 season with Brady being back in the fold.

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