Tom Brady is used to being the most knowledgeable and well-prepared guy in the room.
But he won't be the former as he gets started in Tampa Bay -- and might be a while before he's in the same room as his Buccaneers teammates.
In an introductory conference call Tuesday, Brady repeatedly stressed there will be a learning curve with head coach Bruce Arians' offense after he spent 20 years in the New England Patriots' system.
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"There's a lot of things I've got to get up to speed on," Brady said. "Obviously learning different terminology, that's a unique challenge that I haven't faced."
The other "unique challenge"? Brady still hasn't met any of his new Bucs teammates or coaches in person, as the spread of the novel coronavirus is restricting travel and face-to-face interaction for the undetermined future.
"There's a lot of things that go into it," Brady said. "The sooner we can get those things going, the greater it will be for everybody, but understanding the circumstances of what we're dealing with, we're in a little different approach, and we're going to have to adjust."
The 42-year-old quarterback indeed will have to put in extra work this offseason to get on the same page with his teammates. That means attending OTAs, which it sounds like Brady will do (whenever they happen) after skipping out on the spring sessions with New England in recent years.
"I don't know when our first OTA will be, but I'm sure there will be a lot of guys that I'm excited to meet," Brady said. "I'm going to try to get the best out of myself and try to get the best out of them."
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In the meantime, Brady will be reaching out to his new offensive teammates via phone calls and FaceTimes while hunkering down with Tampa Bay's playbook as he attempts to lead the moribund Bucs to their first playof appearance since 2007.
"I've got to learn the players, I've got to learn the scheme," Brady said. "So, that's where all of my time and energy is going to be focused on. And also learning my teammates, learning guys like (wide receivers) Mike (Evans) and Chris (Godwin), (tight ends) O.J. (Howard) and Cam(eron Brate) and a lot of the skill players. (Running back) Ron Jones and obviously the offensive line, who's a very talented group.
"So, there's a lot of things to focus on."
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