Buccaneers Reportedly Want Tom Brady Back With Team For 2021 Season

The Tom Brady experience thus far hasn’t gone the way the Buccaneers expected it would.

However, Tampa Bay reportedly remains committed to having Brady under center next year. The only remaining question is whether Brady will want to stay in Tampa.

Check out this excerpt from a column published Saturday by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio:

Buccaneers ultimately want to be sure that quarterback Tom Brady chooses to return for 2021.

There’s been a growing sense in league circles in recent weeks that Buccaneers ownership views getting Brady back for a second season as a critical piece of their financial picture. The pandemic kept the Buccaneers from selling all tickets for the first time in a very long time. By next year, the public-health crisis likely will have subsided to the point that will allow the Bucs to open the floodgates again.

The question is whether Brady will be part of the team. Although he’s said nothing publicly to suggest he’s thinking about retiring or trying to play elsewhere in 2021, he said nothing publicly in 2019 about leaving New England, either.

Brady, 43, has been good — but not great — in his first season with the Bucs. Further increasing speculation of a potential breakup has been Arians’ public criticism of the future Hall of Fame quarterback.

Brady is under contract through next season. He and the Bucs will return to the field next weekend when they face the Minnesota Vikings.