Tom Brady isn’t going anywhere.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the legendary quarterback is signing a four-year contract extension with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, it has void years, so he only is locked-in through the 2022 campaign.
To put it in layman’s terms, the void years effectively give the Bucs a little bit of salary cap flexibility now because they can defer payments into later years in the extension. What it boils down to, though, is a one-year extension for Brady, who was preparing to enter the second season of the two-year deal he signed last March.
Simply put, he is now signed for the 2021 and 2022 seasons while, according to Schefter, saving the Bucs $19 million against the cap this season.
Of course, this news comes mere hours after the New England Patriots re-signed Cam Newton, who replaced Brady as the starter in Foxboro back in 2020.
After winning the Super Bowl, the Bucs were coming up on a cap crunch. Basically, signing Brady to this extension allows them theoretically to clear up some space now to keep adding (or at the very least re-signing) so that they don’t have to see a ton of guys walk this offseason.
Brady had no issue recruiting guys to Tampa last season, and it sounds like they’re trying to keep that door open so the Bucs can run it back in 2021.
