Grading Brady: If Tampa's offensive issues continue, it's going to be Tom Brady vs. Bruce Arians

More than any other season, the caveat, "It's only Week 1," should generously be applied this NFL season. We all know why. No reason to rehash.

And with Tom Brady, a new quarterback in a new system with the Buccaneers, that will definitely be the case this season. The Bucs will be much better on offense 4-8 games down the road then they were in the 34-23 loss at New Orleans.

That's if Brady and Bruce Arians get on the same page. After Arians called out Brady's play after the game (incorrectly on the first interception) and again on Monday, I don't think that's definitely going to happen. If Brady and his wife bristled at Bill Belichick's tough internal critiques of Brady — treating him like ‘f—–g Johnny Foxboro' — how are they going to react to the ringless Arians doing it publicly?

But more than that, what struck me about watching Brady in the Bucs' offense was that they were trying to be everything to everybody, and that rarely works in the NFL ... and that could lead to a battle.

What I saw was Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich bending over backward to incorporate what Brady likes to do into their offense. They borrowed some of the Patriots' plays. They tweaked some of them. They adopted many of the controls Brady likes at the line of scrimmage.

And it led to a tentative mess at times, especially once they got off the script for the initial series and touchdown.

Receivers weren't running decisive routes. Brady was unsure of what he was going to see from them — at least four times receivers did something Brady didn't anticipate — and that's a huge no-no for him, you know, with the Circle of Trust being an actual thing. Even the offensive line didn't handle adjustments well.

That definitely could just be an early-season thing. The Bucs could take the tape, make the corrections, and be much cleaner against a Panthers team under a first-year head coach, and a defense that allowed 34 points to the Raiders.

But if this starts taking too much time to gel, Arians is not a patient man. When Arians took a team that went 13-3 and was viewed as a Super Bowl contender to 7-8-1 and then 8-8, he didn't take much of the blame. When Arians was hired by the Bucs to fix Jameis Winston, the quarterback's completion rate went down and interceptions went way up. When Winston wasn't re-signed, it wasn't Arians' fault — Winston was unfixable and they imported.

You think Arians is going to stand around and take another L if things go south with Brady? There's no way Arians is going to admit defeat and say he ruined the end of Brady's career. You heard some of that on Monday, with a day to reflect on the game. And it's only Week 1.

"He looked like Tom Brady in practice all the time, so it's kind of unusual to see that in a ballgame because they didn't do things that we didn't get ready for. Everything they did, we thought we were ready for," Arians said.

If the struggles on offense continue for the Bucs — they finished third in points and yards last season and currently stand 16th and 23rd — then Arians is going to junk what Brady wants, and go with his own system. I'm sure in Arians' mind he'll think, "My offense has been top 10 three of my past four seasons ... we had no problem scoring doing it my way."

And then the fireworks would begin in Tampa between Arians and Brady.

How did Brady actually play, from someone who has studied him closely over the years?

The good: I had Brady for nine plus plays in the game, with eight coming on throws. ... The opener to Chris Godwin was perfect and a nice wrinkle on a staple Patriots play-action pass (pull, the guard, bang action). ... Brady had three great throws against the blitz/pressure, and his three passes on pass interference were absolutely perfect — those weren't gift penalties. ... Brady's going to love slot Scotty Miller. ... Rob Gronkowski did a nice job blocking, especially against Cam Jordan. ... Not a ton of pressure on Brady (24 percent).