Rumors: Tom Brady’s agent will meet with Patriots at NFL combine
Don Yee, longtime agent for Tom Brady, is reportedly scheduled to meet with New England Patriots team management at the NFL combine at some point.
According to a new NESN report by Sean T. McGuire, Tom Brady’s longtime agent, Don Yee, is scheduled to meet with the New England Patriots at some point during the NFL combine in Indianapolis to discuss Brady’s future with the team.
NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport was the first to report the news.
While it’s certainly typical for discussions to occur at the combine regarding players headed for free agency, any and all news surrounding the six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback is sure to make waves around the pro football landscape. It would have been unheard of to suggest we’d be at this point even a couple years ago, and yet here we are.
Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time, could very well be playing for another team other than the Patriots in 2020.
There are multiple factors at stake in the coming weeks.
From Brady’s standpoint, he wants to get paid — presumably for one last time before he retires. It’s assumed he’s looking for a multi-year deal, at least two or three seasons, that will carry him through to his desired retirement age of 45. He also has reportedly been adamant about getting help around him, whether that’s on the Patriots or another team.
From the Patriots’ standpoint, the team needs to decide just how valuable Brady is to them in his current state. He’s a 42-year-old who will turn 43 before the regular season begins. While he still displays an uncanny and unprecedented ability to withstand major injury, his body has betrayed him a bit more in recent years with physical ailments the team is probably not fully revealing to the media.
If New England isn’t prepared to meet all of (or at least most of) Brady’s demands and wishes, then it will be up to both sides to part amicably and pursue greener pastures elsewhere.
In that scenario, Brady will most likely choose a destination where there are plenty of inherent weapons on offense and enough cap space to give him the contract and security he deserves (hello, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Tennessee).
The Patriots, in this scenario, would be left scouring the free agent quarterback class for a quick replacement — someone like Teddy Bridgewater or Philip Rivers at best, or someone like Josh McCown or Marcus Mariota at worst — while they try to either develop Jarrett Stidham into their future face of the franchise or somebody else from this year’s draft.
Neither one of those realities is probably all that enticing if you’re a Patriots fan. The best option from our standpoint is to see New England and Brady saddle up for another year or two — complete with help at the receiver and tight end positions — and try for one more Super Bowl ring with the current triumvirate of Brady, Bill Belichick, and Robert Kraft intact.
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After that, they can all go their separate ways if they wish, or Belichick and Kraft can start over with a rebuild after Brady has retired.
That’s the dream scenario, at least. We want seven.