Tom Brady is committed to returning to the New England Patriots in 2019 and beyond, but that doesn’t mean his team shouldn’t be planning for life without him.
And in the eyes of one NFL executive, they’re going to begin planning sooner rather than later.
ESPN asked anonymous football execs for a bold prediction for the 2019 season. While one said they think Rob Gronkowski will hang up his cleats before the season begins, another had an interesting prediction about the Pats’ draft plans.
The executive suggested that New England not only will draft a quarterback but will pick one up in the first two rounds.
“That’s what they did when they selected Jimmy Garoppolo in 2014,” wrote ESPN’s Mike Sando. “That’s what they might need to do as they line up a longer-term alternative to Tom Brady.
“One key variable could be whether (head coach Bill) Belichick plans to stick around for the long term,” Sando added. “A couple of insiders predicted that 2019 could be his final season with the team.”
There’s some logic to the prediction, but it’s hardly a lock. Chiefly, the 2019 quarterback draft class never was strong, and it thinned out even more Wednesday when Oregon’s Justin Herbert announced he plans to return to college for one more season. That essentially leaves Dwayne Haskins (Ohio State), Drew Lock (Missouri), Daniel Jones (Duke) and Will Grier (West Virginia) as the biggest names out there. While there’s upside to each of them, there’s no guy that even remotely seems like a lock to be a decent NFL quarterback.
Plus, with there being a dearth of signal-callers in 2019, that also means teams likely will draft someone higher than they should be, which probably won’t bode well for the Patriots given their postseason berth this campaign means they’ll be (barring a trade) picking later in the draft.
Of course, if someone knocks Belichick off his feet, then you’d have to think he’ll make the necessary moves to select him.
All things considered, though, we think waiting until 2020 to draft Brady’s replacement is a more prudent long-term move if the 41-year-old truly is committed to continuing to play.
