NFL analyst reveals how Tom Brady elevated the Buccaneers' standards on and off the field

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have not had Tom Brady for almost two years now, but his influence can still be seen in the continuation of their winning ways with Baker Mayfield. But how did this happen? How did the franchise somehow continue to contend even without arguably the league's greatest player ever?

On "Up & Adams," Fox Sports reporter Carmen Vitali said:

'Tom Brady chose to go to Tampa, and so it made everybody carry themselves in a different way and expect more for themselves. And it wasn't like, "If the Bucs could just get out of there." It was "We believe in ourselves, because the greatest football player of perhaps all time believes in us."'

The Buccaneers (9-7) are leading the NFC South. On Sunday, they can clinch the division and a playoff spot if they defeat the visiting New Orleans Saints and/or the 8-8 Atlanta Falcons lose to the Carolina Panthers.

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Ryan Fitzpatrick believes Baker Mayfield brought back the joy that Buccaneers lost under Tom Brady

During Tom Brady's three-year tenure, the Buccaneers were a top team, even clinching the NFC South despite a losing record in 2022, the only one of the multiple-time Super Bowl champion's career. But if incumbent signal-caller Baker Mayfield is to be asked, it was a tense time, as he said on "Casa de Klub" in September:

“The building was a little bit different with Tom in there. Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out.”

Three-and-a-half months later, the one-time Pro Bowler got a supporter in former quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who played for the franchise in 2017 and 2018. He said on his eponymous podcast with former offensive tackle and fellow Amazon Prime Video analyst Andrew Whitworth:

“We go back to the Tom Brady debate or controversy earlier in the year. They asked (Mayfield) to come in, bring joy back to football for the guys that weren’t having any fun, and you want to talk about the perfect quarterback to do that. And, yes, he’s doing that; but he’s doing it now at an elite level to where he’s going to get (the Bucs) in the playoffs.”

Kickoff for the games is at 1 p.m. ET, with the Saints-Buccaneers on Fox and Panthers-Falcons on CBS.