QB Carousel: Greg Auman, Fox Sports NFC South Reporter

Step right up here. Don't be shy. The Super Bowl is over, but the NFL quarterback carousel is just beginning. You could ask yourself a question.

Do I feel lucky? What does the future hold for all 32 NFL teams at the QB position? Now, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to spin this wheel right here. Let's spin the wheel and find out which teams we hit today. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Alright, Brady in retirement for now.

We'll see who's playing quarterback for the Bucks in 2023. Greg Allman has covered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since 2013. And he now covers the NFC South, the Bucks, Falcons, Panthers, and Saints for Fox Sports.

And he joins us right now on the Zach Gelb show. Greg, appreciate you doing this. How you been? Hey, doing well.

Thanks for having me on. So, when we go back to Brady retiring, I know it's been spun now as it was either go back to Tampa or in a retirement. It felt like though all throughout the year it was leave Tampa Bay and play somewhere else. What's the real truth on the Brady decision-making process from your understanding? This year's or last year's?

This year. No, I think he's done, honestly. I mean, I think, you know, the idea that he, you know, didn't do with the Bucks, kind of, we're hoping he might do in terms of waiting and processing as a June retirement to get some cap help.

The fact that he didn't do that definitely gives him the flexibility to listen to people in March that he wouldn't have had if he had done that. But I think he's done. I think it's one of those where, you know, he's already done this once, come back once. And I totally get that come August when it's the first time he's not in camp and not going through a season, it's going to be hard for him. But I do think he's done this once already. Last year was a long year for him. And even if it were an ideal situation and a playoff-ready team that lost a quarterback unexpectedly or something like that, right now I feel like he's done.

He could certainly prove me wrong here, but I think he's done. Well, the two that pop, that come to mind and pop up, you know, in season would be Miami or would be the 49ers. And we know both their quarterbacks, right, Lance and Purdy, and then also to a tongue of eye law, unfortunately have suffered some injuries in their career. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's there.

You can see how that could pop up and you see why it would be tempting. You know, it's going to be something that pops up any time a major quarterback gets hurt this season. People are going to wonder, Rich Eisen was talking about Philip Rivers trying to call and jump in at the last minute there. And obviously Brady's at a different level than Philip Rivers is post-retirement. But yeah, he's going to have the competitive drive. You know he's going to keep himself in shape.

It's just a matter of being able to stay away, which is not going to be easy for him. We know Greg Almoni made the decision to retire, but was the decision-making process the Bucks returning or then going to retirement? Or would he have considered other teams, you think, if he wanted to play?

I guess I can't say that with any authority. I mean, I think there were people that said when he stepped away that it was just Bucks or done. And that there weren't other things in play. And the only thing I would tell you is that I think seeing some of these other longtime quarterbacks that go elsewhere and it doesn't go well, to see Matt Ryan and Andy, to see the year Russell Wilson had in Denver, is a reminder that these second chapters at the end of a career aren't a given and aren't necessarily going to lead to a Super Bowl the way his happened to here in Tampa.

So I just think he's aware of the risk of going out the way you don't want to. And this year was probably that to some extent, even though he went to the playoffs and won a division. To have a losing record, to fall short of expectations is not the way he wants to go out, but it could be worse than even this year was for him. Do you fully expect Kyle Trask to be the day one, week one starter for Tampa Bay coming up this fall?

I don't know yet. I'll be curious to see what they're willing to spend on a veteran quarterback to kind of challenge him. Part of the problem is that now there's a new offensive coordinator. So Kyle Trask is, instead of being entrenched in the same offense for two years, he's a rookie all over again in terms of learning what Dave Canales wants to do. I don't think they're going to spend a lot on a veteran quarterback. I think it'll be an underwhelming veteran who's been a starter before. That could be literally as little as like Drew Locke, who had a year in Canales' offense and was a backup in Seattle.

It could be one of these kind of middle tier, Baker Mayfield, Jacoby preset types, which would be a little bit more real competition for Kyle Trask. The way they're talking right now, they definitely want to give him a chance to compete for the starting job, to be able to work with starters instead of just working with backups as he has the last two years, and show what he can do and show how he's progressed here in these two years. Do you think they'll pursue Jimmy G? It seems a little bit on the high end of what they can afford, honestly.

If they cleared enough cap, if they really let other people go defensively, they can certainly afford it. Jimmy Garoppolo is one of those guys that's a little harder to read what exactly he'll make. Is he a $20 million quarterback? Is he a $15 million quarterback? I don't quite know what his market is compared to some of these other underwhelming second tier type options below him.

So I don't know. He would be at the very most ambitious they would probably be in a position to afford. Is that just why they haven't made a run at Rogers?

I know the Packers, it seems like they don't have any willingness to trade them inside the NFC, but I remember a month ago people were like, oh, if Brady retires, or if Brady did retire, maybe Rogers goes to Tampa. It's just a substantial salary. He's got like a $58 million bonus. They're the worst cap-strapped team in the NFL right now. They're still $40 million over the cap. So to think that they could, I mean, I'm sure he would- Could always find the way, I guess. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those- Salary cap is so fugazi these days. Right?

Yeah, even by those standards, I think it'd be tough to pull off. Greg Allman here with us. So you cover the entire NFC South. It's bizarre to me that the Falcons and Panthers were both interested in Deshaun Watson a year ago. And now all of a sudden, all these teams coming out today, when Lamar gets hit with the non-exclusive franchise tag and go, yeah, we're not interested in Lamar Jackson. Yeah, and I can't tell whether that's just the idea of having to commit $200 million to a quarterback. It is daunting, and I totally get what you're saying about Deshaun Watson, that it seems almost like a double standard. But yeah, I mean, the Falcons don't have a quarterback, and they have the cap space to pull it off.

So I understand why people would talk about them as an option for him and as a potential match. I just, for whatever reason, I think they're okay not making such a massive leap it is to take a quarterback like that and bring them in and put your whole franchise on one person like that. I know we throw the word around collusion very just easily, and there's probably no way to prove that this is going on, but it seems like the owners are just saying, we don't want to give back-to-back years in free agency to quarterbacks or via a trademark, fully guaranteed deals, because for the owners, it sets up for what they view as a dangerous precedent. Yeah, the only thing I would say is that it's not only the precedent for quarterbacks, I mean, if you give a guy who's not on your team a four-year, fully guaranteed contract, when your best free agent comes up in another position, they're going to want the same.

They're going to have a legit reason to ask for the same. So I just think, you know, Lamar Jackson's missed 10 games due to injury, so I get why there's a hesitation to guarantee too much to somebody who plays the game in a way that puts himself vulnerable to hits, vulnerable to injuries. You know, it's tricky because, I mean, it's a former MVP who's available, and you don't want to say available at a reasonable price, but I mean, players of his caliber don't really hit the open market very often, and he's not really on the open market is one of those words. No matter what is offered to him, you know, the Ravens are going to have a chance to match, so what happens then is you do like the Falcons did last year. You get people excited about the chance to get a big quarterback, and then you fall short and you don't have him, and now, you know, you have to move on from the guy who knows he was about to be replaced.

So it can kind of backfire if you go all in on somebody and then they get a matching contract, and you have nothing to show for it. Greg Allman, who covers the NFC South for Fox Sports, is here with us at the QB Carousel. Just one more before we get back to specifically the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

I look at this division. The Saints right now have to be the favorite after getting Derek Carr. We don't even know the quarterback's going to be for the other three teams, but I look at the Panthers. I think they have the best roster right now in this division, and I just can't wait to see what they do, and I'll believe that they're not going to be in the Lamar Jackson sweepstakes when the offseason comes and goes, but there's a lot of momentum of them moving up in the draft. That immediate quarterback scenario for the Panthers is fascinating, because I do think they could win the division if they address it properly.

Yeah, I mean, it's really the only thing they're missing right now. I mean, I think they have a lot of positive momentum with Frank Reich with hiring a star-studded cast of assistants to go with him. They've got a couple free agents they've got to take care of in terms of Deontay Freeman and Bradley Bozeman and some of those types, but yeah, I mean, it'll be exciting to think what they can do. I don't necessarily see them staying put at nine, because I think at least with the momentum of the top-tier quarterbacks right now, nine might not even get you the fourth-best quarterback right now, so the extra picks they got in the McCaffrey deal last year certainly put them in a position to move up to four, move up to five, maybe get ahead of some of the other teams. I mean, four might be the third quarterback right now, so that's still tricky, but I think they recognize you have an offensive-minded coach, you have a new offensive staff. McCown is somebody who I think would be a good guy to develop a young quarterback, so it's definitely exciting as they rebrand this franchise with a new coach to also be able to do the same thing with a young quarterback like this.

So I don't know what we could expect from Tampa this year if they are starting Kyle Trask or another one of those middle-of-the-road type of quarterbacks. How much patience do you think the Glazer family will have with Todd Bowles if this year is like a six-win season for Tampa Bay? Yeah, and that's a good question, and I don't know whether he would go into this year with any kind of understanding from ownership. It's one of those things where I think they knew post-Brady they would have to take some lumps just because they did so much to borrow from future seasons to finance the run they made the last three years.

So I think they know that they're a little bit handicapped that way. They don't have the full measure of a full salary cap or just the ability to spend and address needs the way they have the last three years. So yeah, it is setting them up for a step back. I think they still want to be very competitive in this division. I think even with their car, even with the excitement in Carolina, I think this is still a division that's fairly up for grabs. They're definitely not going to be as talented a team in Tampa, especially defensively. They won't be able to keep nearly what they want in terms of the free agents next week.

They are going to be leaving and going elsewhere. So I don't know how many games Bowles has to win for him to be safe, but I would think the ownership here would understand the context of this season and kind of the limitations they're under. Two more things that I want to get your thoughts on in the Bucks, Greg Almon. Byron Leftwich, how much do you think the criticism he got and ultimately lost his job is justified that he received this past year?

A fair amount. It's one of those where they took a massive step backwards. They still have Tom Brady, they still have Mike Evans, Chris Godwin. They got dinged on the offensive line, but they were 14 points a game horse. The single biggest offensive drop-off from year to year of any team since 1971.

And really never solved things. They had the worst running game in the NFL in yards per game, in yards per carry. Struggled in a lot of key situations. I don't think Leftwich probably helped himself in terms of how he answered questions or took criticism about the offense. To where once they moved on, there's not a lot of people upset that he's gone.

A lot of people that question that. The fact that he hasn't taken another job a year ago. He's sitting there almost getting the Jaguars head coaching job. So it's kind of a tough turn for him in the last year to have the offense go as badly as it did with Brady still there. And now to have him kind of on the outside looking in, I'm sure he'll land another coaching job.

He's still younger than Brady. But this didn't go the way he wanted it to this past season for sure. It honestly reminds me a lot like John DeFilippo. Because when he was in Philadelphia, people were like, oh, he's going to go get a head coaching job one day. And I don't even know where John, I think John DeFilippo may be in the XFL right now.

Like I don't even know. XFL New Orleans maybe? Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I think he's the head coach there. And it's just like crazy how quickly a guy can go from getting a head coaching job to then pretty much getting kicked out of the NFL.

Or not even going to consider for one of those jobs again. Right. Yeah, it's tricky. I mean, it's one of those words, you know, left which hasn't been coaching that long. I've been coaching about six years.

So it doesn't have quite the, you know, the background that some of these coaches have. But he's only 42 years old. Even if he takes this year off, he'll get to come back and kind of reset himself. You know, that's the same offense that we get in 30 points a game in 2020 and 2021. And a big part of why they were in a position to win a Super Bowl two years ago. So that hasn't changed. Last thing I'll ask you, the Brady Arians relationship, what is the truth there on why Arians walked away a year ago? Oh, I think it's overblown. I think it looks odd in retrospect now, but I think what he said in terms of wanting to be able to hand a team over to Todd Bowles with a chance to win, as opposed to waiting until after Brady, it kind of backfired in that he gave him a team with the expectation of winning, they fell short of it.

So it certainly didn't have the desired outcome. But to see Bruce now, I mean, I talked to him in Arizona, the Super Bowl, you know, I think he feels like, you know, he kind of got a practice year at retirement this past year. And then he was in a consulting role. He was around the team, but he's able to pull back now and be less involved and probably won't be around the team on a day-to-day basis this fall the way he was. So I think, you know, he thought about how, you know, that that interim coaching year he had in Indy, he kind of got a practice year to be a head coach. And now he kind of has had a practice year in retirement.

So I think you'll see him take a step back, but I don't think it was nearly the fractured relationship that some people made it out to be. Greg Allman does a great job covering the NFC South for Fox Sports. Appreciate you jumping on board today for a few minutes, Greg.

No problem. You guys have a good night. There's nothing better than feeling comfortable in your own shoes. And that doesn't mean flopping down on the couch with bunny slippers.

Maybe you're a parent raising a little rock star or a tech nomad working from anywhere and jumping from one thing to the next. Whoever you are, Allbirds wants you to be comfortable in your actual shoes, too. Their wool runners, pipers and loungers are designed for a level of coziness that makes you feel like you can do anything.

You might even forget you're wearing them. And their shoes are so stylish, they go perfectly with a wear-whatever-I-want attitude. Allbirds is all about loving Mother Nature, too, because no one wants to leave a bad footprint. Each shoe is carefully crafted from natural materials that tread lightly on our planet. From ZQ certified Merino wool to a bouncy midsole made from sweet foam, the world's first carbon-negative EVA material made from sugarcane. So get comfortable in your shoes. Get to know the wool runners, pipers and loungers at Allbirds.com. That's A-L-L-B-I-R-D-S dot com.