Tom Brady’s camp and the Patriots likely will begin contract negotiations in the near future, potentially as soon as the upcoming NFL Scouting Combine.
When the two sides meet, Nate Burleson believes Brady will be the one dictating the course of the conversation.
Brady is eligible to hit free agency for the first time in his career when the new league year opens March 18. While Brady likely would command a fair amount of interest on the open market, the safe bet conceivably is on the six-time Super Bowl champion returning to New England. Foxboro appears to be the best fit for Brady, who’s probably the Patriots’ best answer at quarterback for the 2020 season, as well.
As such, Burleson seems to believe Brady’s conversations with the Patriots could be focused more on the supporting cast rather than the quarterback’s own contract situation.
“Do I believe Tom Brady is going anywhere else? No. I believe that Tom Brady will be in a Patriots uniform right now,” Burleson said Monday on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.” “He has them hostage because they have to pay him. He’s like Michael Jordan at the end of his career. He can do one-year deals and really break the bank.”
Burleson continued: “I feel like Tom Brady will be in a Patriots uniform. The question is, will Tom Brady help the team turn into Wayne Brady and ‘Let’s Make a Deal?’ Who will they make a deal with? Will they go get A.J. Green and try to find a way to get him in a Patriots uniform? Or will they try to make a deal with the Browns and bring Odell Beckham? I feel like Tom Brady is waiting to see if he can strong-arm this team into making a decision to bring more talent so he has the pieces this year. With all this said about Tom Brady’s age and the lack of talent around him, they still were in the playoffs and Tom Brady still played better than the majority of quarterbacks in the league. Tom Brady is still the king of the deck and we gotta wait and see what happens with him.”
Who gets tagged? Who signs with a new team? Who gets drafted where?
The @gmfb crew discuss which QB moves could create a domino effect throughout the NFL ? pic.twitter.com/dWWIQbZygC
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) February 24, 2020
There’s a good chance executives around the league indeed are waiting to see what happens with Brady. Once the future Hall of Famer signs the dotted line, we very well could see the rest of this offseason’s free-agent quarterbacks — including Dak Prescott, Jameis Winston, Philip Rivers and Teddy Bridgewater — fall in line shortly thereafter.
