Supposedly, neither the Indianapolis Colts nor the New York Giants plan to make a run at Tom Brady if the New England Patriots QB becomes available.
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer was fairly confident in his proclamation on Monday that two NFL teams long connected to Tom Brady this spring aren’t actual suitors of his. While plenty of analysts and beat writers are playing the Brady free agency roulette game right now, Breer’s words sounded more like factual statement than educated guess.
Take a look for yourself:
"“The Giants and Colts aren’t among those suitors. You can cross them off the list. I was told pretty emphatically that neither will be in the mix if Brady does make it to free agency.”"
Granted, he doesn’t necessarily say who it was that told him this so emphatically. Not that he could name whoever said it, though — that’s the whole point behind sources in the first place.
But still, one can presumably assume that the people Breer spoke with are intimately connected with the New York Giants and the Indianapolis Colts, respectively. Whether those individuals are friends or colleagues of team ownership, GMs, head coaches, or general staffers, who knows — but for now at least, it seems like he has some credible information.
As Breer himself says, you can “cross them off the list” of potential Brady destinations this spring, then.
For those keeping count at home, this news leaves a slightly smaller pool of interested parties attempting to court the G.O.A.T. over the next two weeks — namely, the New England Patriots, the Tennessee Titans, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Oakland Raiders, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
While there have been whisperings that the Chicago Bears are planning to acquire a veteran QB this spring, it sounds increasingly like that QB might be Andy Dalton of the Cincinnati Bengals.
The word on the street is that Chicago isn’t necessarily ready to give up on former first-round draft pick Mitch Trubisky just yet, but they do want to push him. Dalton serves that purpose much better than Brady, obviously, who would need to start no matter what.
Other teams linked at one point to Brady — such as the Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Cowboys, and Denver Broncos — have been much more quiet on the rumor mill front with regards to TB12 of late.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all out of the running if Brady becomes available, but it does mean we can all probably focus our attention instead on the top-five contenders listed above.
Patriots fans are obviously still rooting for Brady’s return to New England this spring. Rumors and reports suggest that there’s mutual interest at least between Brady and Bill Belichick in gearing up for Year 21 of the Brady era in Foxborough — it’s just a matter of showing the 42-year-old that the team is serious about surrounding him with better talent for 2020 on offense now.