Center Ryan Jensen's Telling Story Shows Bucs Are Getting Same Old Tom Brady
In an article from Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Tampa Bay Buccaneers center Ryan Jensen said he has already learned a lot from his new quarterback, Tom Brady. The two started getting acquainted just a week after Brady signed his contract with the Buccaneers, and in their first meeting, Brady asked Jensen a very particular question:
“Do you wear a glove on your snap hand, Ryan?”
Jensen’s yes answer was something that Brady said needed to be worked on.
“These minute details so far that I’ve seen him be concerned with, from something as small as that to cutting on the fourth step, not the fifth step, on a route, it’s stuff like that where I’m sure he carries himself through his life like that. You can tell he’s very detail-oriented that way,” Jensen said.
Aside from the particulars of Jensen’s position, the two spent time getting to know each other. Brady even asked for Jensen’s opinion on the best place to live in Tampa.
According to a high ranking source in the Bucs organization that Breer interviewed after signing Brady, there was an “expectation” that the mere signing of the quarterback would elevate the level of play of the entire team.
Jensen noticed that effect after his first meeting with Brady. “He flips a switch,” he said. “Even just in talking, you talk about life, where he should live in Tampa, this is the first conversation we had and, then all of the sudden, when we start talking about ball a little bit, you feel the intensity switch. I think that’s something that you see, and you’ve seen obviously the last 20 years, he can flip that switch in intensity.”
To no one’s surprise, Brady has held meetings and workouts with several of his new teammates, including Jensen, putting in the work this offseason that will translate on the field beginning in September.
Minor things to other people are important details to Brady. In one of workouts recently, Brady showed Jensen how to use a towel to prevent sweat from getting on the ball, a necessary concern in Tampa. Jensen also started taking snaps without a glove.
Brady’s demands of others are high, which can make working with him difficult at first. Patriots center David Andrews discussed the adjustment of working with Brady in an interview with NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” last year.
“There were definitely a lot of growing pains at first," Andrews said. "I played center for a long time and thought I snapped the ball pretty good, and found out very quickly that I was not that good at it.”
Andrews recalled his first game against the Steelers during which the teams played through some misty and at times wet conditions.
“I'm just worried about trying to block these guys,” Andrews said. “And he's coming up to me like 'Hey, let's not roll the ball on the ground, it's a little wet and I don't want the ball to get too wet,' and I'm just like, man, I've got so much more to worry about than that right now."
Despite Brady’s demands, Andrews was firm in saying that Brady was, “a great teammate to work with.”
As demanding and particular Brady can be, we have seen just how well it works in New England and his methods will be put to the test in Tampa. But if there's one thing that is evident, it's that the Buccaneers are getting the same old Tom Brady.
