Bruce Arians and Tom Brady: What former Cardinals QBs see in duo

A former Arizona Cardinals coach and beloved member of the franchise history now finds himself the head coach of one of the league’s all-time great quarterbacks.

Bruce Arians, who came out of retirement to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, goes from Jameis Winston to Tom Brady as his starting quarterback. He also has Rob Gronkowski in the fold, as seemingly overnight the Bucs became one of the most intriguing teams in watch in the league.

Former Cardinals quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Kurt Warner both played against Brady, and Palmer played for Arians. They each gave insight onto what they expect from the Brady-Arians marriage when they joined Arizona Sports’ Doug & Wolf for QB1.

“It’s such a different dynamic. Obviously Tom’s going in there with a bunch of Super Bowl rings and a lot of success doing something for a long time one way,” Palmer said.

“There’s no doubt [Arians will yell at Tom]. There’s no doubt. But the difference is B.A. no longer is in the ear because B.A. is not calling plays, he’s got [offensive coordinator] Byron Leftwich calling plays. So B.A. is going to be chilling on the sideline with a Gatorade, sitting in a golf cart watching. So Tom will at least be able to call a play and not have piercing his eardrums through the quarterback earpiece inside the helmet, B.A. yelling and screaming because that’s just not Byron’s forte. Byron’s very clam and cool and collected, and I think that mesh is really, really good for the three of those guys to work together.”

Warner didn’t play for Arians, but the NFL Network analyst and former Cardinals quarterback probably has paid plenty of attention to Arians and his work over the years. He also played in the league at the same time that Arians was working for other franchises, such as when Arians was the offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh.

“I’m fascinated like everybody to see how B.A. and Tom work together,” Warner said. “B.A.’s been around a lot of great quarterbacks so he knows how to work with those guys and the different egos and to be able to balance pushing them but also working with those guys. So I don’t foresee there being any issues, but like all of us, there’s moments in games where we’re all going to get fired up, it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side of that, what coach that is.

“There’s often times coaches see something completely different from their nice little chair or golf cart on the sideline that’s not quite the way it looks when you’ve got the ball in your hands and a bunch of big men chasing you down. I think there’s going to be some fireworks, I’m sure, here and there. But I think they’re both pros and they’ve been around it enough, like most of us, it happens on the field and you’re buddies by the time you’re walking off the field and it’s just part of the competitive nature of the guys we’re talking about.”

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