Among the biggest questions of the NFL offseason is what the next chapter of Tom Brady’s Hall of Fame career holds. He will be 46 years old when next season kicks off in September, but will he end his career on such an aggressively sour note?
If he could do it all again, Brady likely retires after winning the Super Bowl in 2020. It was seemingly the exclamation point on his career and the answer to the question of whether he or Bill Belichick deserved top billing on the Patriots Dynasty.
It would have been the perfect ending to the greatest career a quarterback has ever had.
Instead, Brady came back in 2021 and turned in back-to-back seasons of diminishing returns. It seemed he had finally fallen victim to Father Time and joined every other great quarterback in hanging on too long. It’s seemingly put him in a position to come back for a 23rd season and properly ride off into the sunset.
That’s the narrative, at least. Brady very well could retire and still be remembered as the greatest quarterback who ever lived. His final year in Tampa will become a trivial footnote and in absolutely no way touches the other two decades of insane accomplishments. It all comes down to how much Brady values the storybook ending and how much he has left in the tank to make it happen.
Folks around the league seem to believe he cares a lot.
NFL exec reveals 49ers plan to acquire Tom Brady this offseason
Right now it’s looking like the San Francisco 49ers are going to be the Bucs main competition for Brady this offseason, and fans in Tampa should be concerned with how well it lines up.
An unnamed NFL executive spoke to Mike Sando The Athletic and gave a pretty solid plan on how the 49ers might acquire Tom Brady and how it plays perfectly into their future plans.
Sando has some deeper details in his piece, but the Cliff Notes are:
- Trade Trey Lance to the Titans and recoup some draft capital
- Sign Tom Brady to a one-year deal
- Brock Purdy plays 2023 as Brady’s backup and learns from him in the QB room
The worst part about that plan for Bucs fans is how much it objectively rules and logically works.
San Francisco is in an almost identical situation as the Buccaneers were in 2020. They have a world-class defense, a genius-level offensive head coach, and weapons that Brady has never had before. As good as Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are, Brady would be joining an offense with Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, and Deebo Samuel — plus all of the other role players Kyle Shanahan has.
Beyond that, the Niners have a chance to do what the Bucs haven’t and avoid fumbling the bag once Brady leaves. Where Tampa Bay has almost instantly reverted back to what it was pre-Brady, the Niners could set themselves up for success in the years after Brady leaves. Having Purdy learn behind him and hone the incredible talent he showed while Brady finally fulfills Shanahan’s prophecy seems like a win-win.
No indications have been given by Brady what he plans on doing, and it’s easy to pick at these threads and feel like the code has been cracked. Until he decides what he’s going to do — and he’s been emphatic about not knowing yet — it’s all rumors and hearsay.