It will go down in NFL chronicle that Tom Brady's last pass as a New England Patriots was hauled in by Logan Ryan.
Ryan's one of Brady's newest Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates now, but then he was a cornerback for the Tennessee Titans who returned a Brady interception nine yards for a touchdown to put the final touches on Tennessee's 20-13 wild-card upset of the Pats in the 2019 playoffs.
"He's got a good memory. So, I'm sure he remembers," Ryan said Thursday, via team transcript, during his introductory news conference with the Bucs. "I don't remind him, we move on. But, I know he remembers that play. I think he does."
It was Brady's last pass as a Patriot before he joined the Buccaneers. For Ryan, it sealed a win during the Titans' surprising run to the AFC Championship Game, but it was also his last postseason with the Titans as he moved on to two seasons with the New York Giants and has now signed with the Bucs.
Now on the same squad again after four seasons together with the Patriots, Ryan and Brady share the same goal for the 2022 season.
"The No. 1 thing about coming here was winning a championship, and that's what I'm here to do and help with," Ryan said. "Being a teammate of Tom, that's what he's about. Playing football at the highest level, practicing football at the highest level. Obviously, the expectation and standard is championship, each and every year and each and every day. So I was excited to have that opportunity. That's what I'm playing for at this point in my career, and it makes a lot of sense. This is a great organization. But, I think the championship opportunity, to go compete for that, and to have a talented roster around me [allows] me to come in and be a great teammate, do great things in the community, and win a championship."
While Brady has steered the Buccaneers to five postseason wins, including a Super Bowl triumph, since signing with Tampa Bay, Ryan hasn't been back to the playoffs since his Tennessee tenure ended. He signed with the Giants, rather than the Bucs, who expressed interest in bringing him aboard. It didn't work out then, but Ryan hopes it will now.
"He was part of it," Ryan said of Brady chipping in on the recruiting process two offseasons ago. "It was pretty mutual a couple of years ago, and it didn't work out at the time. [It was] just money. But, it worked out this time. It didn't take much of a recruiting pitch from him this time because I knew how much the organization had valued me a couple of years ago. So, better late than never."
The 31-year-old Ryan figures to bring more to the Buccaneers' table than just a note of trivia about being the player to intercept Brady's last Patriots pass.
A two-time Super Bowl winner from his days in New England, Ryan has started at least 13 games for seven consecutive seasons and boasts great versatility for a Bucs secondary that was ravaged by injuries a year ago.
"Come in and be a great player, period," Ryan said of what his role will be. "They know I'm a great teammate. Bring experience, I have some experience, in the secondary. It's a great, young group, but I just have a little experience to me. Just be a great communicator – help shore up the communication. Some disguise is what I do well. So, some of my strong suites are just a natural fit of what they needed. But, versatility is my calling card in this league – it got me 10 years here. So, whatever position that may be, that's up to Todd Bowles to play me wherever he wants to play me. I've just got to be able to learn it all. It's a really talented group. I knew there was an opening there when the young, talented safety (Jordan Whitehead) went to the Jets, I knew there was an opportunity there for myself to play with Mike Edwards, [Antoine] Winfield, Carlton Davis, [Sean] Murphy-Bunting, Jamel Dean, and all those guys. Like I said, I know the roster really well from watching a lot of film and hearing the recruiting pitch a couple years ago. They have a really good group back there."
Ryan ended Brady's days as a Patriot, but now the two former New Englanders are back chasing Super Bowls together again.
At one point this offseason, though, Ryan wished Brady well in his retirement.
Then he found out like the rest of the NFL world on a sleepy Sunday that Brady was waking everybody back up for another run.
"I had no idea, honestly," Ryan said of Brady unretiring. "I put out a nice, thoughtful tweet about his retirement. I put time into that tweet. I went back to the first time I met him, practices, and I reminisced. I was in the kitchen making something for my kids- maybe, a Hot Pocket or something like that, and my wife told me [he unretired]. So, I was late to the party, later than everyone else here. 'Did you see what's going on? Tom's back.' I'm like, 'What?' So, yeah. I had no idea."
As he wrote when Brady retired, Ryan has seen it from both sides. Thus, he has more than an idea of what lies ahead for Brady, himself and the Bucs as they put in the work to make another Super Bowl run.
