During an interview with Sirius XM’s Howard Stern, Tom Brady said he had a strong indication going into the 2019 season that it would be his last with the Patriots. The sides had agreed to a deal last year that prevented the Pats from placing the franchise tag on Brady, but it does not sound like the team was definitively moving on.
The Patriots held out hope of re-signing Brady up until the week of free agency, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (video link). Brady’s meeting at Robert Kraft‘s house provided the Patriots closure on their centerpiece player, but Rapoport adds that going into that summit the Pats were still hoping Brady would inform them he wanted to stay.
The Brady saga took substantial turns, from the Raiders and Chargers preparing bids to the Titans being the top threat to the Patriots to Brady’s camp showing interest in the 49ers to finally the Buccaneers winning the sweepstakes.
Brady announced on the morning of March 17 he was leaving the Patriots. His agent began discussing a deal with the Bucs once the legal tampering period opened at 11am CT March 16, but the future Hall of Fame quarterback did not engage in discussions with Bruce Arians or Jason Licht until the evening of March 18. At that point, Licht indicated Brady was pitching himself to the Bucs. It appears it was Brady who wanted to exit Foxborough more so than the Pats desiring to start over with a cheaper option.
Brady signed a fully guaranteed two-year, $50MM deal with the Bucs. As of now, 2019 backup Jarrett Stidham is the odds-on favorite to succeed Brady. However, Cam Newton and Jameis Winston are free agents. And while the Bengals are considering keeping Andy Dalton, his $17.5MM cap number makes him a potential release candidate.
Another story from the duh category. I mean NE wanted to roll with Brady in 2020 instead of Stidham, Newton, Hoyer, Winston, Dalton or some draft pick? You’ve got to be kidding right?
Obviously the sports world is at a standstill and these guys are still dishing out FREE content. You don’t like it, don’t read it. Plain and simple.
I am so sick of the rehashing old stories. But I still read hoping it will be something new.
I’m sure the staff would like to have fresh stories to report on every day but they don’t have any control over that. They do offer polls and PFR exclusives to offset the boredom of dead news cycles so they are trying their best to keep us entertained and informed.
The Patriots do NOT have the cap space for the overpriced QBs like Dalton, Cam or Jameis. Who writes these articles, chimps?
There annoying and didn’t mean to like it but F BRADY Darn
It’s true they don’t have cap space for these 3 QB’s.
Although the don’t a capologist explained that they could free up as much as $25M by restructuring contracts etc. for existing players. Remember right now they have almost $15M tied up in Joe Thuney for this year based on tagging him. That could change quickly with a new contract negotiation or a trade. This draft will be very interesting for BB/Pats. They need to come away with some good young talented, smart and speedy players to combine with the veterans they decided to keep. Although Stidham probably needs another year, who really knows what he’s capable of. They’ll probably draft another QB in 3rd or 4th rounds. Maybe Morgan or someone like that.
I’m sure they could restructure contracts to free up cash for this season. But isn’t the multiple restructures of Brady’s contract how they got into the current situation? All it does is kick the can down the road and the Pats aren’t close enough to contending for a championship this season to warrant a further delay in the inevitable.
I’m guessing there’s a lot of frustrated (read: lousy) sportswriters commenting here on FREE articles written during a time when not very much is happening in the sports world. I sure wish these comment sections had a “block user” function…
I think the staff do an excellent job of getting rid of the bad apples that refuse to play by the rules they’ve laid out so we don’t need a “block user” function. A lot of people simply use it as a means of revenge because their feeling got hurt which is rather childish.
When people say much is not happening that’s understandable on the field, ice, court etc., But behind the scenes teams are preparing to make moves and improve (NFL for sure) so it’s still very interesting for me. You have to build the team before they can be good enough to improve, perform and untimely win. For a GM winning is acquiring the player however which way that happens (trade, draft, released).
Ultimately
The PFR staff are terrific in my view and since they are providing a free forum for us to interact we should be supportive of them. I migrated here from PFF because that site terminated the free forums when it became a subscription site.
Sam your article sucks try again two thumbs down
Who cares, Belichick knew well in advance the Tommy had to go. He’s at the edge of the cliff and it may not be a pretty ending for a great qtr back. TB12 is driven by ego and his brand. His last super bowl would have made a great retirement time. What’s to prove, that he will be 43 in August and trying to play with team mates in their 20’s ? If the season doesn’t happen, what come back in 2021 at 44.