We have been conditioned to believe that Tom Brady fully intends to play professional football until he is 45 years old.
But that is a misnomer. It’s incorrect. It’s actually shortsighted.
The reality is that Brady intends to play football until he is at least 45 years old, and, quite possibly, significantly longer. As in years. With an “s,” as in plural. At this point, 45 is a mere baseline. Might be a worst-case scenario.
Could he play until he is 47? Certainly not out of the question whatsoever. Is 48 the magic number? Well, maybe. Could be. Much like art, Brady will know it’s the end when he sees it (or feels it). Suffice to say, he is not anywhere close to that headspace right now, and I don’t see him getting there anytime soon. Absolutely not in this offseason, when the entire motif is about extending his tenure in Tampa Bay, doing whatever he can do to keep this dream team intact and to continue to add to his already unfathomable array of championship hardware as this most improbable NFL career rages on.
Brady haters, get used to it. He ain’t going away.
Not anytime soon.
Tom Brady turns 44 on Aug. 3, a few days into Buccaneers training camp. And if he gets his way – and, well, he pretty much tends to – most of his 2020 Bucs teammates will be right back with him. That is the reason for the contract talks between him and Tampa brass, with the team in a bit of a cap crunch. It took a perfect storm of events to bring Brady to Tampa a year ago, and that storm has yet to subside, on field or off.
Brady still clearly a top 10 quarterback who now has the growing pains of a new team and new system out of the way, and he badly wants to have his stable of capable pass catchers back. The Bucs don’t have much cap wiggle room, at a time when Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski are all key free agents on offense, with Lavonte David, Shaq Barrett and Ndamukong Suh among the elite defenders the team is trying to retain, with a single, solitary franchise tag at their discretion.
Enter Brady.
He has one year at a modest $25M remaining on his deal, counting a hefty $25M against the cap. He wants that figure to be much lower, according to league sources, and so do the Bucs. He believes he can play three or more years, and so do the Bucs. He doesn’t want to move his family or play anywhere else and, you guessed it, the Bucs don’t want anyone but him under center for the foreseeable future.
So it says here, this contract extension will get done. The team could add three years to his deal, continue to pay him around the bargain rate he is making, and be well positioned to keep this thing going. The GOAT may currently be fourth in total compensation in 2021, but the fact he is behind Jared Goff and Carson Wentz – already jettisoned by their teams – and tied with Jimmy G, who very well may be next, speaks volumes (and once free agency wraps up Brady may well be outside of the top 10, anyway). This isn’t about ramping up his salary, but rather maintaining this level of compensation – which will only provide even more roster assistance as the cap begins to soar again as soon as 2022 – and lowering cap numbers and continuing to re-recruit free agents back to Tampa.
As one source put it, the thrust of this is about “doing what he can to help retain great players and build a foundation for more success.” It’s about creating a salary strata where other players in their prime can continue to cash in, with the team that drafted them, while Brady helps steward them to more deep playoff runs.
The above salary structure will continue to provide flexibility to the Bucs in the event that Father Time does in fact catch up to Brady at some point, though the avocado ice cream still seems to be doing the trick. They could give him $20M-plus in a bonus and spread it over four years (if three new years are added on) and have enough to keep multiple players right there.
That’s where this is headed. And I suspect Brady, if three new years are added, fulfills that contract. I know that concept seems absolutely bonkers for any football player. It’s nuts. Makes no sense. Except for Brady.
Who dares still doubt him? After the December adjustments and recalibrations to the offense that resulted in nothing but wins through February? After a seventh ring to add to his unparalleled collection? After the Patriots fell quickly and thoroughly to the wayside in the wake of his departure? After the Bucs won a Super Bowl in their home stadium?
Repeating is tough. Ask Patrick Mahomes.
But if anybody can do it, it’s Brady and these Bucs, assuming the core stays intact. That’s what this is all about. Brady knows; he’s the last quarterback to win two in row, back when he was closer to being a freshman at Michigan than he was to the post-40 wonder that he has become.
It seems like a career ago, because it was. And while Tompa will never match his Foxboro days in longevity or greatness, this chapter is far from over. Brady is already pushing the limits daily to continue to defy aging, and the odds. He has visions of 10 Lombardi trophies dancing in his head.
He used to talk about age 45. Now he sees well beyond it.
The Bucs share that vision.
With the Saints at a cap crossroads, the Panthers just rebuilding and the Falcons‘ coaching overhaul leading to an eventual rebuild (this is it for Matt Ryan in Atlanta), the Bucs have an immediate path to more postseason home games. The NFC South is deep in transition, while they are trying to stay the course.
The eventual cap savings from Brady will further fuel that. His presence alone makes the Bucs a premium draw to free agents looking to rebound on a prove-it contract (and the suppressed cap in 2021 will lead to a bloated market for such veterans), to say nothing of sudden winning culture unlike any other.
Brady will take a little less (perhaps a lot) so that others can have more. There is still plenty for all, and so much more winning to be done, together.
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