Welcome to the Two-Minute Drill, a roundup of all the (mostly) Patriots-related offseason news you need to start your Thursday. Grab your mochaccino or whatever, and let's boogie...
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The reports started with, apparently, Jimmy Stewart from Felger & Mazz and continued from Tom Curran and Karen Guregian: Tom Brady and Bill Belichick talked and it "didn't go well." Adam Schefter said it was business as usual.
I can confirm that there was a conversation, although the date isn't exactly clear. Beyond that, I can't tell you much.
Why?
Because I can't trust what either side is saying because they each have their bias. I can tell you this much: it ain't the Patriots saying it didn't go well. And it isn't Brady saying it's business as usual.
This is all a very dangerous game because the stakes are very high for those involved directly in this. Figuring out the end game of the NFL's greatest player on both sides ... there's a ton at stake. Each side wants its own outcome, and they want to win the public relations side of it.
What do I believe? I continue to think that Brady's camp has the most to lose in all this. This whole thing, from the house selling to the moving to Brady's attitude this past season, has been engineered to get Brady what he wants, whether that's with the Patriots (preferred) or elsewhere. He wants respect, weapons, some coin and a chance to win another title. Brady has been marching to this free agency for months and he can't afford for it to be a dud or to no deliver. He could wind up with retirement as the best option in that case.
That's why I think Brady's camp is responsible for a lot of the leaks — he's trying to create a market when there really isn't a robust one.
His agents just came back from the combine. They know what the market will be. They've had conversations barely above a whisper in hotel rooms and at private dinner tables. If Brady was deadset on leaving, hated Belichick, and knew a preferred destination was going to snatch him up, why say anything? Why not just stay silent, be polite to the Patriots when they call, and then tell them to go pound sand when free agency opens?
Why the need for the two orders, Colonel Jessup?
If Brady knew he had a robust market and a perfect landing spot like the 49ers was laying in the weeds, then why the need for the leaks? Why tell us anything?
The truth is there isn't much of a market, at least not with teams Brady really wants to or would play for. You, me, the Patriots and the lampost know Brady is not playing for Raiders or Bucs. He might, at the very end, play for the Chargers but they might go another direction before that. The Giants and Colts are out. League sources expect the Titans to lock in Ryan Tannehill at some point at a cheaper rate thanks to the Brady leverage, although that could change.
Then where is that going to leave him? The 49ers? Really?
If that team was really interested in Brady, and that was their plan and communicated that to Brady, they would have told Brady's camp to shut up. They certainly wouldn't have told reporters to keep pumping it.
Just remember through all this that much is at stake and Brady has the most to lose. When you see a report, ask who it benefits.
Then you'll know who ordered the Code Red.
In any event...
2. Brady's voice was actually heard ... and he didn't say anything new.
3. Belichick is going to receive the key to Annapolis, Md. Take that Brady.
4. If you wanted to know the back story about how Brady and Julian Edelman ended up at a Syracuse basketball game, it's right here.
5. A bizarre story about a young, punk gambler who threatened players, including some Patriots.
Around the NFL...
6. The CBA has been completed and is being sent to the players for a vote that must be completed by March 12. So here we go...
7. The Rams aren't going to use the franchise tag, which means Dante Fowler and Michael Brockers, among others, will be free agents.
8. The NFL's best fullback, Kyle Juszczyk is staying with the 49ers. Total Brady bait.
9. Muhammad Wilkerson, a really good player when right, got his second DUI in nine months.
10. I love a Big Boy Trade: Panthers and Chargers swap Trai Turner for Russell Okung. Doesn't make much sense for Carolina unless they're just shedding cap.
Extra Point
In case you missed it. Here’s @ufc President @danawhite’s pitch to QB @TomBrady, attempting to lure him the Las Vegas @Raiders. #vegas #raiders #tombrady pic.twitter.com/4S3ppNyXVZ
— Mick Akers (@mickakers) March 4, 2020
