Possibly there’s no better spot to discuss a major bet than a couple of squares from the Vegas strip.
Tom Brady had quite recently completed the process of tossing for 369 yards and four scores to the same number of recipients and scrambling for another score in Sunday’s 45-20 win over Jon Gruden’s Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.
Scotty Miller had six gets for 109 yards, the first occasion when he has outperformed the century mark in his vocation. It incorporated a sliding 33-yard score to cover a two-minute drill seconds before halftime.
The Bucs are 5-2 and their VIP quarterback is one of the group’s hot shots with 15 score passes and just a single capture attempt in his previous five games.
Regardless of this shame of wealth at the getting position — Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Miller and youngster Tyler Johnson — the Bucs need to push Lady Luck.
Rather than zeroing in on the dangerous success Sunday, the subject normally went to the Bucs’ choice to hazard everything by marking upset recipient Antonio Brown to a one-year contract.
“It’s an insurance policy,” coach Bruce Arians said. “You know, when we don’t have Mike and we don’t have Chris, why not have another Pro Bowl-caliber player that’s available that fits our camp and fits everything else? So why not? We have good players. You can’t have enough of them.
“In Chicago, we’ve got one of our top guys out there on one leg. Why not have another one?”
The facts demonstrate that a couple of games prior, when Evans was limping, Miller had no objectives a Godwin was out with a hamstring strain, the Bucs glanced awful in losing to the Bears 20-19.
Evidently, that is the point at which the conversations increase between head supervisor Jason Licht and Arians about Brown, who actually is serving an eight-game suspension for abusing the class’ direct strategy.
Brady, who currently has 559 profession passing scores, outperforming Drew Brees (558) for most in NFL history, gets the credit or fault for campaigning for the Bucs to sign Brown, who is waiting on the post trial process for battery on a moving van driver and still faces a rape charge.
“I think he’s matured. I believe in second chances,” Arians said of Brown, who was exchanged by the Steelers and cut by the Raiders and Patriots in the previous year. “You know, everybody wants to say that Tom picked him. Tom didn’t have nothing to do with it. This was something Jason and I have been talking for a couple weeks, ever since the injuries to our other guys. When the time was right, would we see if we could pull the trigger and fit it into what we want to get done? And we’ll see. If Antonio does what I think he’s going to do, he’ll be fine.”
For three hours on Sunday, the Bucs didn’t look like they need him.
Tampa Bay fell behind 10-7 preceding Brady covered score drives of 88 and 85 yards with scoring passes to Rob Gronkowski and Miller.
The Raiders and quarterback Derek Carr slice the lead to 24-20. The Bucs confronted third and 13 when Leonard Fournette sneaked out of the backfield, gotten a short pass and extended for the first down.
Brady covered the drive with his short score pass to Godwin. The Bucs got the show on the road directly back when security Mike Edwards tipped a pass that youngster Antoine Winfield got for his first capture. Brady associated with Godwin again for 23 yards and Ronald Jones scored his fourth score of the period with a 1-yard run.
“We did not get enough pass rush today, and if you let Tom Brady sit back there and survey the field, he’s proved it for 20 years, he’s proving it for 21 years, that he’s still one of the very, very best,” Gruden said. “They have an arsenal of weapons, credit to them.”
In any case, it’s insufficient. The Bucs are betting that this time, Brown will be a decent trooper and not upset what they have in that accepting room.
Evans is the Bucs’ greatest star outside of Brady and he didn’t have an objective until late in the second from last quarter Sunday. He got done with two gets for 37 yards and had just one catch a week ago in a 38-10 win over Green Bay.
“Mike is one of the most unselfish superstars in the league,” Miller said. “He only had a couple catches today and the past couple games but that’s because he’s getting double teamed the whole game, really. That makes it so much easier for me and everybody else.”
Maybe no player will be as influenced by Brown as Miller. The two of them are smallish, speed beneficiaries and won’t supersede Evans or Godwin.
“Like you said, we have a lot of really great players and adding one at the receiving position to our room is scary,” Miller said. “I’m excited to meet (Brown) and really just excited to learn from him. … I think he can really help my game out in the future.”
Earthy colored, who marked a motivating force loaded agreement that could win as much as $2.5 million, won’t be qualified to play until the Bucs have New Orleans in Week 9 (Nov. 8).
Brady just played one game with Brown last season yet has been pushing the Bucs to include him since the previous spring.
“He’s a tremendous football player and I played with him for a brief period of time,” Brady said. “…He’s a dedicated person. We’re setting off to all go on the training field and do what we can do and perceive how everything fits together.
“We’re fighting a lot of continuity from a lot of other teams, a lot of other coaches. Bruce has had tremendous patience with me. Watching me grow in the offense and I totally appreciate that and respect that and feel I’m getting to a more comfortable place.”
Brady additionally rushed to accept the move call of the beneficiaries he has worked with since March, the ones who have helped him change to another group following 20 years with the Patriots.
“I’m not getting into personal conversations we’ve had together,” Brady said of Brown. “The guys we have are amazing players and teammates. Mike, Chris, Scotty, Tyler (Johnson) caught a touchdown today. Cyril (Grayson). Mick (Jaydon Mickens). The tight ends, Huddy (Tanner Hudson), Gronk, Cam (Brate), obviously. They’re all doing a great job. We miss O.J. (Howard) out there. We’ve got a good group.
“We’re trying to win football games and we’re here to do a job.”
At long last, it’s tied in with keeping the hot streak alive. Brady accepts he can convey the Bucs to a Super Bowl and he’s beginning to appear as though he could run the table.
On Sunday, the Bucs left the city where benefit wins and red or dark can be your greatest decision.
Yet, even with all the triumphant, they’re willing to wager on Brown.