Tom Brady has officially signed with the Buccaneers, and the contract details are out.
We were able to confirm the numbers first reported by Adam Schefter: two years at $50 million fully guaranteed plus another $4.5 million in incentives. There are also provisions that prohibit a trade and the franchise tag.
All in ✍️ #GoBucs pic.twitter.com/F0sZAZ08w4
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) March 20, 2020
This says it all to me and boils down to the one word Brady wanted to hear from Bill Belichick in the former of a contract since the offseason of 2017: commitment.
I don't care
what other reports are out there about what the Patriots offered last offseason or this year, Belichick was never going to give a 40-year-old-plus Brady two years fully guaranteed. Ever.
Consider this, and we've documented it all going back to the Jimmy Garopolo trade:
- 2016: Brady had a tremendous season, leading the Patriots to an 11-1 record and their fifth Super Bowl title and he was Super Bowl MVP. He would have been NFL MVP if he wasn't suspended for four games.
- 2017: Not only does Brady not receive a contract extension in the offseason, he has to listen to media reports about how the Patriots won't trade Jimmy Garoppolo, at the time when his market would be best, for four first-round picks. Garoppolo is finally traded during the season — Brady wonders behind the scenes where the security of his contract extension is — and Brady goes on to be named NFL MVP for the third time. He throws for over 500 yards and loses in the Super Bowl to the Eagles because the Patriots' defense, with Malcolm Butler standing on the sidelines, can't stop anyone.
- 2018: The only tweak to Brady's contract is incentives tacked on that he never hits because the personnel, with a fading Rob Gronkowski, isn't good enough. Brady has sensational fourth quarters in both the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl to help the team win its sixth ring.
- 2019: Again, the contract discussions with the Patriots go basically nowhere and Brady — who is set to make $15 million that season — is so fed up that he threatens not to travel to Detroit for joint practices and a preseason game. The Patriots finally cave, adding $8 million to his deal but because Belichick refused to fully guarantee another season — Brady wants to the Drew Brees $50 million for two years deal — Brady is done doing this dance so he requests for his contract to void and that he can't be tagged. Patriots agree. There are reports the Patriots offered a two-year deal to Brady but you can bet it had more hoops than a hula-hoop convention for Brady to jump through.
- 2020: In his only conversation with Belichick, Brady heard nothing to indicate that the negotiations would be different, likely ending with a one-year deal that factored in his dead cap hit ($6.75 million for two years). That essentially ended things for Brady and he was able to secure offers from the Buccaneers and Chargers that were in the same ballpark: two years at $50 million fully guaranteed with the only hoops being incentives that could take the deal to nearly $30 million each season. Since the Patriots had their chance — multiple times — to make Brady a similar offer and never did, Brady agrees to terms with the Buccaneers and doesn't give the Patriots a chance to match, which they likely wouldn't have in any event.
Brady is now a Buccaneer.
Now, the question is ... would I have done this deal?
The answer is yes. Brady proved himself in 2016, so I would have traded Garoppolo in the offseason of 2017, restarted the succession clock again with another prospect, and then inked Brady to an extension that would have taken him through 2020.
Even if that didn't happen, I would have offered Brady the Brees contract this offseason and used a five-year deal with voidable years to push off the big cap hit until 2022. That would give the Patriots room to add more to the roster. Brady was arguably, even with terrible weapons, a top 7-to-10 quarterback last season and likely would be for at least the next year. $25 million per season is still only top-15 QB money. Brady deserved that and I would have given it to him.
The only reason Brady is in Tampa now and not New England is because, for years, Belichick refused to show any type of commitment to Brady, who felt he earned that for what he's done for the franchise and also his current level of play.
Belichick wouldn't deviate from his own belief system in terms of team building and how to deal with aging players.
We'll see who was right.