Bucs Super Bowl coach says this is why most young QBs don’t make it

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers' head coach Bruce Arians explains what makes a quarterback succeed or fail in the NFL.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady talks with head coach Bruce Arians. / Brad Mills-Imagn Images

Bruce Arians has been around the league for a long time. He has been in multiple positions, from coordinator to head coach, and now he holds a spot in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' front office despite not being as hands-on as he once was.

Arians has three Super Bowls to his name — two as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers and one as the head coach of the Buccaneers — and along the way, he's coached many a quarterback in the league, including Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck and Ben Roethlisberger.

Not one quarterback is the same, and although Arians coached a slew of great quarterbacks, he seems to have figured out what the difference is between a great, good, and bad quarterback in the NFL. In a story written to The Athletic, Arians highlighted one main thing that separates quarterbacks, and even other players, when it comes to being successful.

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bruce Arians during warmups against the Philadelphia Eagles. / Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

"After all my years in the NFL, I think [that] the No. 1 indicator of whether players in general and quarterbacks in particular will succeed or fail — how they handle failure," Arians said.

How one handles failure also shows how one handles adversity, and that is exactly what Arians is pointing towards. If a quarterback, or player, can't handle the adversity of failing and learning from it, then the odds of said player becoming who they can be will be skewed.

Arians clearly knows a thing or two about quarterbacks, as he also had a hand in taking a chance and bringing in Baker Mayfield to the Buccaneers a couple of seasons ago — look how that turned out. With so much weight geared towards players' stats, performance, athletic ability, metrics, and measurables, it is ultimately the intangibles, such as handling failure and adversity, that will set apart the greats from those who will fail to reach their potential.

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