New England Patriots: Tom Brady is just one week away from free agency

Quarterback Tom Brady is just one week away from entering his first free agency period after 20 years with the New England Patriots.

There have been both mixed and missed reports on whether or not the New England Patriots and Tom Brady have talked about their upcoming futures.

Some reports say that the two sides have been in contact, while others strongly imply that they have not. All we know is that Tom Brady, who will be 43 years old next season, is going to be entering free agency for the first time in his illustrious 20-year career.

Another thing we do know, despite what some people may think, is that this is exactly what Brady expected to happen.

When the New England Patriots and Brady negotiated on his most recent contract extension in 2019, Brady did not want to be franchise-tagged … which both sides knew would give him the option of testing out free agency in 2020. So, to be clear, this shouldn’t be surprising to anyone.

The most surprising development in the Tom Brady saga is all of the NFL insiders, and even the local Boston media, who lead to believe that Brady will be playing for another team not named the New England Patriots next season. This includes the recent comments from Peter King, the NFL’s most respected sports writer for NBC Sports “Football Morning in America.”

King was a guest on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football and addressed his position on Brady’s future:

"“I truly don’t know anything, and I think Tom Brady wanted to have it that way. My gut feeling is the Patriots will let him go.”"

Brady also announced last week through an Instagram Live video with Dana White, president of the UFC and huge Las Vegas Raiders supporter and ambassador, that he does not know what the future holds and that he is going to be patient through his first free agency process.

Here’s more on Brady, this time courtesy of ESPN’s Mike Reiss:

"“It’s been a lot of patience for me. Obviously being where I’ve been for 20 years, it’s been an amazing experience. I don’t know what the future holds. Right now, I’m just trying to be patient through this process. It’s my first time going through it. In the meantime I’m going to spend a lot of time with my family over the next 10-12 days. We have a little vacation planned, which I’m looking forward to.”"

The most intriguing part of this was Brady’s overall method and delivery of getting his comments heard. While on a live feed — knowing millions of people are going to be watching — Brady allowed White to persuade him into joining the Raiders. It’s worth noting that the Raiders have been a team linked to a possible landing spot for Brady.

Here’s White again:

"“Let me make my last pitch. Las Vegas would love to have you here at the Raiders. The stadium, the facility is incredible. The training facility that they have outside of Vegas is incredible. And for a 45-minute flight from LA, your kids and your family could live there, you can fly back and forth. We want you to come to the Raiders. You know I’ve been pitching you for a month. Come on brother, get to Vegas!”"

It’s worth mentioning that this obviously is not the first time that Brady and White have talked during the offseason. In fact, Brady has presumably talked to more people affiliated with the Raiders than he has the Patriots this offseason, including owner of the new Las Vegas Raiders, Mark Davis, which happened during a UFC Conor McGregor headline fight earlier in the year in Las Vegas.

Needless to say, Tom Brady is definitely intrigued by going through the free agency process and seeing what the future could hold for him outside of New England — which he should be, and has every right to do so.

Overall, Brady is at a point in his career where he doesn’t want to be part of a team rebuild, and he needs to be on a team that is ready to contend for a Super Bowl right now. If Brady thinks he needs to leave the New England Patriots to do so, he most certainly is going to without any hesitation.

I’ll leave you with this bit of information. The last we have heard from the six-time Super Bowl champion was through a text message with his former offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis. Weis is now the host on Sirius XM NFL Radio’s “Opending Drive” where he relayed this message from Tom Brady:

“Nobody knows anything. So anyone who is telling you they know, they don’t.”

It should be a fascinating next couple of weeks for Tom Brady, the New England Patriots, and the rest of the NFL.