Tom Brady reportedly helped recruit the free-agent wide receiver Russell Gage to the Bucs.- Brady had been unretired for one day when he told Gage the Bucs were "building something special."
Improving the
Brady on Sunday announced that he is returning to the NFL to play a 23rd season, less than two months after retiring.
According to
Gage agreed to join the Bucs on a three-year, $30 million contract.
—Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) March 16, 2022
For a player who was seemingly done with football for the past month, Brady has apparently been thinking pretty hard about what the Bucs need to get back to the Super Bowl.
Clyde Christensen, the Bucs' quarterbacks coach, told the Tampa Bay Times that Brady had a list of areas to improve when he spoke to Christensen hours after announcing his return.
"It felt like the morning after we had just lost to the Rams," Christensen told the Times. "He had a list. He said, 'Here's how we can be better.' I think he had been out of retirement 12 hours or so by then.
"The first thing he said was he didn't want to go out that way. He wanted to make sure we do everything to win it all next year."
Brady's return has seemingly had an impact on the Bucs' free-agency moves. Cornerback Carlton Davis re-signed with the Buccaneers and told the Times that Brady's return factored into his decision to return to Tampa Bay.
"Who wouldn't want to come back and compete for another ring with the GOAT?" Davis said, according to the Times reporter Rick Stroud. "When I heard the
With the 2022 season potentially being Brady's last, it seems he is determined to make his farewell tour a final Super Bowl run.
"He has a great vision of where he sees this thing going," Christensen said.