With Tom Brady recently moving the goal posts on his long-established play-until-he’s-45 target, the Buccaneers are discussing a new deal with their quarterback. And the sides are making progress, according to veteran NFL reporter Josina Anderson (on Twitter).
Brady is on Tampa Bay’s books at $28.4MM in 2021. An extension would be a way to reduce that number and help the Super Bowl champions retain some of their high-profile free agents. GM Jason Licht said last month a Brady extension was on the radar.
Coming off a rather successful age-43 season, Brady has said he is open to playing past age 45 now. (Brady will turn 44 in August.) His two-year, $50MM contract runs through 2021.
The Bucs have $11MM in cap space and can only retain one of their marquee free agents with the franchise tag. Chris Godwin and Shaquil Barrett are Tampa Bay’s tag candidates, and the team also has Lavonte David, Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown, Ndamukong Suh and Leonard Fournette looming as free agents-to-be. Free agency opens March 17, but the legal tampering period begins two days earlier.
The Bucs have said they want to keep everyone in this group, and some of these cogs have indicated they would like to return. While Brady’s presence and the Bucs’ status as defending champions stands to be a draw for veterans during a year in which many could be available — due to the likely reduced salary cap — the aforementioned contingent played a significant part in Tampa Bay claiming its second Super Bowl title. Losing a few from the group would sting.
Although Brady did not make the Pro Bowl, he climbed back into the top 10 in QBR (seventh) after a spotty 2019 season in New England. The future Hall of Fame quarterback bounced back from a three-INT second half in the NFC championship game, throwing three TD passes in the first half of Super Bowl LV. He will miss much of the Bucs’ offseason program due to knee surgery and may be out until June. However, Brady having spent a year in Bruce Arians‘ offense figures to make this offseason less important than last year’s for the 21-year veteran.
Great, this guy will play till he is 50. Tried of hearing and seeing him play on stacked teams yet take all the credit
yeah, like he had the world’s best weapons during each SB run. It’s a QBs game. besides maybe this past run they were mostly on him.
I’m a Bucs fan and I believe the same thing. The Defense get no credit.
Their defense got a ton of credit this year. Both sides contribute. He doesn’t win it without the defense and they don’t win it without him.
Rob Parker has entered the chat…
Tampa had most of the same team last year and had a losing record. Brady deserves a bunch of credit for this run.
i dunno, AB, Gronk, and Fournette werent and they played big roles. (though they were brought there by Brady, granted, and none truely carried the team alone)
Those guys are good, but let’s not pretend that they are the difference makers on this team. AB was their third-best receiver, Gronk their fourth-best, and Fournette was the back-up running back for most of the season(he got the lead role in the playoffs, but any solid back could have done the job he did). Plus, like you mentioned, they only signed because of Brady.
Exactly. Fournette is just a big name at this point, because he really hasn’t become the guy he was supposed to be at LSU and he probably never will be. He’s not a bad player, but he’s not the starter and he really didn’t move the needle. Gronk can still play, but they had Brate and OJ Howard before him so it’s not like they just recently discovered good tight end play. AB was a depth receiver for them.
It can be frustrating to see Brady win all the time, but it’s even more frustrating to see people go out of their way to make excuses. He’s had some good breaks in the past, but you don’t luck into 7 rings.
You may get hate for this but it’s 100 percent true. Tony Romo fawning over Brady in the super bowl saying the defense deserves “some credit” was disgusting. And of course the camera went straight to Brady after the 13-3 defensive SB vs the Rams.
Bucs were a stacked team last year and didn’t make it to the playoffs. Goes to show the strength and skills of Thomas Edward Patrick Brady.
Yes it shows! Winston threw 30 interceptions the year before Brady got here! There is no excuse than to know that Brady is the better option even at age 44!
Yeah, guys like David Patton, Jermaine Wiggins, Kembrel Thompkins, etc count as “stacked.”
You obviously know nothing about football and what it takes to win a super bowl. No QB just lucks into 7 championships. I don’t care how “stacked” those teams are. Haters gonna hate but you’ll never see another QB do what Tom Brady has done. Get over it.
TB simp
ruckus 727,
Actually, you have no clue about the game of football period. Those Patriots teams were not stacked. Those teams were mostly made up of guys who were let go by other teams or they were traded for by Belichick. Julian Edelman was a late round pick, Josh Gordon was let go by another team, Danny Shelton was signed as a free agent etc. Belichick can just see probable talent more than any other coach!
Seriously? You can “stack” a team to your hearts content but that guarantees nothing. What Brady did was to defy the experts and silence his critics by guiding a team virtually no one favored for much more than a playoff spot. Go ahead…try to diminish him.
I understand what you are saying, but Winston is the only reason the Bucs went after Brady. 30 picks with a stacked team doesn’t amount to crap.
Eh, don’t argue with the narrative. It’s too hard to figure out that rings are the results of team play, not some magical individual “will to win” or some other ESPN generated BS.
Brady of course played a factor intoTampa’s win. Brady also did not hold the Chiefs to 9 points in the Super Bowl, or the Packers under 30 (after Brady threw three consecutive picks) or the Saints in a tied game at the half to under 30 as well. Brady gets all of the credit, and he obviously deserves some for setting expectations and drawing free agents. But we keep pretending that he’s some magical wizard while he is throwing to All-Pros and relying on a top level defense to back him up. We keep hearing that Brady has never had a soul to throw to, that he was the last pillar of hope for a team that neglected him, but there’s no chance in Hades that anyone can say that this year. I mean, it’s a terrible, lazy, overused argument anyway, but this year it’s just categorically untrue. Who gets to throw to four All-Pros (Evans, Godwin, Brown, Gronkowski) and more Pro Bowlers and STILL take all the credit for the touchdowns? There’s only one QB who has. Don’t misinterpret this post-it’s not meant to convince you that Brady is bad. It’s meant to tell you that he was riding a loaded team this year. As good as he is, he benefitted from Tampa buying a team. That’s just undeniable-if you doubt it, just consider if any QB this year would have swapped places with Brady on that offense compared to what he had with his respective team.
Giving Brady most of the credit for this Super Bowl (in which he threw for under 200 yards, which is actually only twice the yardage that the refs accounted for in favor of the Bucs) only serves to push a narrative. It doesn’t reflect reality. The Bucs were only a game under .500 with Winston last year, and Winston turned the ball over more than 30 times. And that’s before Tampa bought more options in Gronkowski and Antonio Brown. Brady contributed, he’s great, no one is denying that. But he didn’t win this Superbowl on his own. He wasn’t even the only QB who could realistically have done so. If you think that he was, you’re the one who doesn’t know football. But don’t let that get in the way of the narrative-that might mess up the merchandising sales.
How come the Bucs cap hit is so dang high if everyone is becoming a free agent!?
Quarterbacks take the good and bad. They are the marquee position. It doesn’t hurt that Brady is the GOAT. Pretty sure no one said the defense wasn’t good. Brady was pretty good also.
At some point Father Time will win….he’s undefeated….but man is Brady giving him a run for his money.
Father Time already took the L
The Bucs won the SB but I think Brady getting the MVP was a joke.
You’ll never be busted for PEDs if you’re drinking 34 glasses of water a day. Of course you can’t be more than 20 feet from a restroom either…
I think Todd Bowles was the MVP of SB 55. His game plan was letter perfect. There were many defensive standouts in the game. David, White, Barrett, etc. The defense played lights out after they got past Washington. It’s funny that the non-Super Bowl MVP was the one who gave the Bucs defense the most trouble. Brady had a great year on the field. I think most of his value is the winning culture he helps establish. He has never been close to the highest paid QB. He has always been willing to redo his contract to help free up money to help keep a strong team. Brady is about to do an extension again this year. He was the 13th highest paid QB in the league this year.
Seattle has remained a playoff caliber team, but they have fallen off some from their recent SB runs once Wilson got the huge contract. In KC, Mahomes’ big contract begins this year. Kelce and Hill are still under contract for a couple more years, but some cost cutting will come into play.
Besides the large amount of turnovers in 2019, the Bucs were one of the most penalized. Even this year during the Bears game, the offensive line made several careless penalties that helped cost that game. Brady got fired up as the game wound down. The following game, the entire team committed zero penalties. I’ve heard many of the players and coaches use the word believe when it comes to what Brady brought the team. They all believed they could win it all. It’s a team game, for sure, and Brady certainly didn’t win it on his own, but when players see the time and effort someone who has already won 6 rings put in, they all kick up their time and effort and play a notch or two.
I love Godwin, but if it’s a choice between him and Barrett, I think you have to keep that defense strong. AB could come back with Gronk (whose undersung value was his blocking and protecting Brady) to help fill that void. Plus O.J. Howard would be coming back after missing most of the year. The draft is deep with receivers, too. But hopefully, most of the team could come back the following season.