On the same day that the Buccaneers introduced Jason Licht as the team’s new G.M., he carved out a few minutes of his busy schedule to join Pro Football Talk on NBCSN.
The full interview, as played during Friday’s PFT Live, contained an intriguing anecdote from Licht’s days as a scout with the Patriots.
During his tenure in New England, the Pats used a sixth-round draft pick on a quarterback named Tom Brady. In his second season, an injury opened the door for Brady to play. But when did it first become obvious that Brady would be a special player?
“I would say the first training camp when the coaches were buzzing that they had never seen a guy as smart and as in tune with the offense and the defense at the same time and I just remember he was correcting coaches out on the field during drills and getting into a shouting match with a particular coach then going back to the film room and finding out that Tom Brady was right,” Licht said. “And that story about him going up and shaking Mr. Kraft’s hand and saying this is the best pick you’ve ever made, that is true and obviously the guy is confident.”
So who was the coach that Brady shouted at?
“I wouldn’t say shouting match,” Licht said with a laugh (even though he’d said “shouting match”), “but just a regular coach-player disagreement. I’ll keep that to myself.”
Licht surely would love to find another Brady in Tampa. For now, it’s unclear whether the 2014 starting quarterback currently is in the building.
“Well, we’re going to have to come together with our evaluation for the team and unfortunately I’ve only had a couple of hours to really dig into this so I need to continue doing that the next couple of days, the next week, and then get together with Lovie [Smith] and figure out where we are together,” Licht said. “But I will tell you this from what I’ve seen so far, I am impressed with the young kid at quarterback. I think he’s got three things that you look for in a quarterback. He’s an accurate passer, he’s very smart, and he’s very tough. It’s hard to judge a guy in his rookie year.”
The young kid is Mike Glennon. And maybe his best strategy for 2014 will be to get into a shouting match -- or at a minimum a “regular player-coach disagreement” -- as soon as possible.