Safety Budda Baker is in his sixth season and was just named to his fifth Pro Bowl, but you can still hear in his voice the appreciation he has of Brady and what it means to have a chance to play against him for the first time.
“He’s been in the league 20-some years, mostly longer than guys have been alive,” Baker said, adding “soon he’s not going to be on the field, not going to be in the NFL. It’ll be weird, like when LeBron (James) leaves the NBA.”
Baker is intrigued with how the future Hall-of-Famer attacks the Cardinals and Baker in particular, knowing most teams pay close attention to where Baker lines up on every play.
That moment a couple weeks ago, when 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw picked off Brady and then got Brady to sign it after the Bucs lost? Baker thought it was cool.
“To have that type of ego Tom has to be happy for guys still and sign on the field,” Baker said with a smile. “If you do that to another QB in this league he’ll probably look at you crazy. Hopefully I’ll get to pick him off and maybe he just signs it.”
If the Buccaneers were to lose to the Cardinals, that might be a tough ask. The Bucs have lost two straight to the 49ers and Bengals, although even with a 6-8 record Tampa remains in first place in the struggling NFC South.
“We wish we would’ve won every game — I certainly do — but we haven’t earned it,” Brady said during his Thursday press conference.
“I have a lot of perspective,” Brady added later. “I love playing, I love playing with my teammates, I love practicing and I love working out. I love training, I love talking about football, I love pass protection and run protection and crazy stuff a lot of us don’t think about. It’s a lot of fun for me still.”
That includes seeing people like Kingsbury – “I played with Kliff and we’ve been friends ever since,” Brady said back in 2019 – and trying to beat a coach younger than he.
“I think you can see the friendships that he’s had over the years, he’s been good to all those guys and that’s why whether it’s (Matt) Cassel, Jimmy G, or (Jacoby) Brissett, he definitely tries to mentor them and work with them,” Kingsbury said. “He was phenomenal and every guy that’s gone through there I think would say the same thing.”
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