During an appearance on HBO’s The Shop: Uninterrupted, Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady discussed his reactions to a potential 2020 free agent suitor pulling out of the sweepstakes to stick with their incumbent signal-caller.
“There was a story, in free agency, one of the teams, they were interested and all of sudden they weren’t interested at the very end,” Brady said. “I was sitting there thinking, you’re stick with that [expletive]? Are you serious?
“When I look back I’m like, there’s no [expletive] way I would’ve went to that team. But they said they didn’t want me. I know what that means, I know what that feels like.”
There’s been plenty of speculation about the mystery team and quarterback that Brady was referring to, and Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com cites multiple league sources who believe the future Hall of Famer was referring to the Raiders and Derek Carr. Las Vegas had been mentioned as a potential Brady suitor during the 2020 offseason, but the organization dropped out of the sweepstakes after balking at Brady’s long list of requests. As Florio notes, Brady had his chance at payback last season, when he tossed four touchdowns in a 45-20 Tampa Bay victory over Las Vegas.
Unless Brady unexpectedly reveals who he was talking about, we’ll never truly know if it was the Raiders. Plenty of other teams and quarterbacks have been mentioned, including the Bears/Mitch Trubisky and the Titans/Ryan Tannehill. The 49ers and former teammate Jimmy Garoppolo have been a popular suggestion, but considering Brady’s lifelong affinity for San Francisco (and his declaration that he was never going to sign with that team in the first place), we can probably cross them off the list.
Here’s more out of the AFC West…
- Quinton Jefferson has played all over the defensive line during his five-year career, but despite the Raiders depth at defensive tackle, the team is still planning to play their free agent acquisition at his natural position. The 28-year-old will be teaming up with the Raiders main offseason acquisition, defensive tackle Yannick Ngakoue, and Jefferson is excited to form a two-headed monster with his good friend and former college teammate. “Yannick is one of the best pass rushers in the NFL right now and he brings that intensity,” Jefferson told The Athletic’s Vic Tafur. “He is going to bring some pressure and help relieve Maxx (Crosby), free Maxx up so that other teams can’t key on one guy. And then hopefully I can bring some interior pressure as well, so we should have a good mix out there. I am excited to see how that all comes together.”
- Ryan O’Halloran of the Denver Post explores several Broncos players who find themselves on the roster bubble prior to training camp and the preseason. Atop his list is defensive tackle McTelvin Agim, a 2020 third-round pick who was limited to only 110 defensive snaps as a rookie. O’Halloran notes that it’s troubling that the young defensive lineman wasn’t working with the starters during minicamp despite the absences of Mike Purcell and Shelby Harris. Offensive tackle Calvin Anderson, running back Royce Freeman, safety Trey Marshall, and linebacker Derrek Tuszka also earned spots on the list.
- The Broncos brought in both Bobby Massie and Cameron Fleming to compete for the starting right tackle spot, and ESPN’s Jeff Legwold believes Massie will get the first shot at the gig. Massie certainly has the advantage when it comes to experience; the 31-year-old has started 110 of his 118 career games, including each of his eight games in 2020. Meanwhile, Fleming has mostly served as backup throughout his career (91 games, 42 starts), although he did start a career-high 16 games for the Giants last season.
I haven’t read PFT in years and much better off w/o Florio’s non-sense, make believe stories, ideas and thoughts since then.
So….
1) The Raiders will neither acknowledge or deny any rumors.
2) Mr Florio has lost his way and post garbage almost in an effort to make a quota.
3) PFT has long run on an agenda with a biased approach to every team.
4) Anyone who would think that a stadium could hold the ego’s of Both Gruden and Brady hasn’t been paying attention.
5) The Raiders issues are on the defensive side of the ball — I don’t see Tom Brady playing “Iron Ball” and lining up in the secondary
If anyone is wondering where the air from all those balls went, check Brady’s head.
Did he play well last season, sure. I mean he did have a Pro Bowl team around him on offense though, so…
it was probably the Bears
How could you possibly think the Raiders have depth at Defensive Tackle lmaoo? They have johnathan Hankins, who is only a run defender. So the basically have a half of a DT, of course Jefferson is playing there. And please don’t try and tell me Solomon Thomas is good.
Thomas is alright inside, actually. The problem is that he is far too undersized to play the position he’s best suited to play. The 9ers tried to use him as an EDGE defender because of how he is built and his accomplishments on the line in college, but Thomas just plays better as a DT inside. He’s not someone I would use as an every day starter there, but Thomas can add good value as a rotational piece of alongside a strong workhorse starter in a 4-3 front. I do agree that Vegas is well short of depth at the position, and at several along the defense.
Florio’s written about twelve stories on that one comment already. I think everyone with half a brain has already come to the conclusion that Brady was just talking for the camera to keep up the conversation.
I’m not sure what the point of that special even was to be honest, or why anyone would watch a bunch of successful athletes try and be relatable to fans. Even if Brady was referring to someone specific, why would it matter? Every athlete thinks that about competitors. They all think that they can do better. Heck, we do it too-if someone gets a job we want, or an award we wanted, or whatever it is. It’s common. Jimmy G probably thought that same thing about Brady, even.
The fake haircut honesty thing was gimmicky anyway. They all have traveling hair stylists. I’m willing to bet that not a single one of them has set foot in an actual barber shop in years.
Florio’s written about twelve stories on that one comment already. I think everyone with half a brain has already come to the conclusion that Brady was just talking for the camera to keep up the conversation.
I’m not sure what the point of that special even was to be honest, or why anyone would watch a bunch of successful athletes try and be relatable to fans. Even if Brady was referring to someone specific, why would it matter? Every athlete thinks that about competitors. They all think that they can do better. Heck, we do it too-if someone gets a job we want, or an award we wanted, or whatever it is. It’s common. Jimmy G probably thought that same thing about Brady, even.
The fake haircut honesty thing was gimmicky anyway. They all have traveling hair stylists. I’m willing to bet that not a single one of them has set foot in an actual barber shop in years.
Florio’s written about twelve stories on that one comment already. I think everyone with half a brain has already come to the conclusion that Brady was just talking for the camera to keep up the conversation.
I’m not sure what the point of that special even was to be honest, or why anyone would watch a bunch of successful athletes try and be relatable to fans. Even if Brady was referring to someone specific, why would it matter? Every athlete thinks that about competitors. They all think that they can do better. Heck, we do it too-if someone gets a job we want, or an award we wanted, or whatever it is. It’s common. Jimmy G probably thought that same thing about Brady, even.
The fake haircut honesty thing was gimmicky anyway. They all have traveling hair stylists. I’m willing to bet that not a single one of them has set foot in an actual barber shop in years.
For some reason this comment posted three times. Sorry, it won’t let me delete the extras. I suppose it’s too much to ask for a mod to get rid of them. If each of these comments was an article, I’d be a fourth of the way to Florio’s number on the subject by now, so sorry about that.
They are short staffed and hiring but everyone loves a good addendum (or two) so no apology needed.
“There was a story, in free agency, one of the teams, they were interested and all of sudden they weren’t interested at the very end,”
Nice to know Tom is getting his rumors from the same reliable source as the rest of us.
My god how hard is it to type a quote? Sticking* not stick. This site is getting worse and worse.