After renegotiating his contract in February of 2013, Tom Brady indicated to me that he hoped to keep playing until he’s 43.
Monday’s news that Brady extended his deal through 2019 means he’s under agreement to do exactly that. After the 2019 season, Brady will be 42 and will have spent 20 seasons in the NFL.
This news -- which I’ve confirmed after it was first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter -- means Brady’s got no late-career wanderlust and that New Englanders probably won’t have to deal with the ungodly sight of him finishing his career in some other uniform.
I say "probably" because -- while he said 43 in 2013 -- Brady’s most recent statements on when he’ll wrap it up keep the door open for him to just keep on playing until he can’t play no more.
Here are five other things the Brady extension means.
GAROPPOLO FUTURE
Previously, Brady and backup Jimmy Garoppolo's contracts were both set to expire in 2017. Now, with Brady signed past that point, it’s logical to think Garoppolo will be heading elsewhere when his rookie deal expires . . . and maybe before. A second-round pick in 2014, Garoppolo isn't going to want to spend six seasons holding a clipboard and looking over Brady’s shoulder without getting a chance to get his own professional fulfillment. The interesting question now becomes what the Patriots opt to do with Garoppolo between now and the end of 2017. Would they be willing to deal him to a quarterback-needy team now, like Houston, Cleveland or San Francisco? Could the Patriots add a high second-rounder, which would ostensibly replace the 29th overall pick they lost because of Deflategate? Or does New England believe the security Garoppolo brings makes him too valuable to deal? Garoppolo is represented by Don Yee, who also represents Brady, so Yee knows the Brady deal wasn’t made in a vacuum.
2017 SALARY CAP
We don’t yet know what the numbers are for the Brady extension but the new deal promises to drop Brady’s cap hit in 2016 from the planned $15 million. Brady was on the books for a $9 million salary and $6 million bonus this season, and a $10 million salary and $6 million bonus in 2017. The Patriots were already $13.6 million under the 2017 salary cap of $155 million with the recent retirement of Jerod Mayo. Brady’s restructure clears even more room.
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POSSIBLE NEW DEALS
While the cleared cap space could be used for a spending spree (free agency begins March 9), it will more likely be put to use in extending key defensive players with deals that expire after 2016. On that list are cornerback Malcolm Butler, linebackers Dont'a Hightower and Jamie Collins and defensive end Chandler Jones. All are Pro Bowl-level performers at this point and Butler and Collins in particular will be looking for significant bumps sooner rather than later. Hightower and Jones will both make more than $7 million guaranteed this season.
BRADY AND THE HISTORY BOOKS
Now that Brady’s contracted to play at least four more seasons, let’s look at where he is now and where four more Brady-ish seasons will put him statistically. He currently has 428 regular-season touchdown passes (tied for third all-time with Drew Brees). In 14 seasons (tossing out 2000, when he was a backup, and 2008, when he was injured), Brady’s averaged 30.5 touchdown passes a year. If he averages 29 over the next four seasons, he’ll be at 544 career TD passes, five more than Peyton Manning. Brady is fifth in passing yards at 58,028. That’s an average of 4,144 per season (roughly). If he sticks to that pace, he’ll end up over 74,000 passing yards, which will put him clear of both Brett Favre and Manning, the only two to top 70,000. In terms of games played, Brady’s started 223 and his record as starter is 172-51. Four 16-game seasons would put him at 287 starts and -- if the team averages 10-6 -- would leave his record at 212-75. I’m not even going to bother with the playoff numbers.
ALL IS WELL WITH KRAFT AND BELICHICK
The past 13 months have probably been the most trying offseason of Brady's career. There are layers and layers to the story of Deflategate and there was ample opportunity for feelings to get bruised and resentments to build.
I don't think the Brady camp felt too good about Robert Kraft folding his tent last May at the owner’s meetings in San Francisco for the good of the league. Big things like that, and little things like there being no Patriots presence at Brady’s appeal hearing save for a letter from Kraft, couldn’t have gone unnoticed.
Meanwhile, Bill Belichick couldn’t have looked at the equipment swiping and autographing that was unveiled by the Deflategate text messages and been too happy about Brady’s involvement in it. He certainly wasn’t happy spending time leading into the 2014 Super Bowl with a lab coat on running Ideal Gas Law experiments. Or about the fact he’s without a first-round draft pick this season. Certainly, the NFL would draw most of his ire, but there had to be some tension about the suspiciousness of what exactly was going on.
And Brady no doubt noted that Belichick’s "Ask Tom . . . " reply in the days following the NFL commencing its witch hunt did him no favors.
But none of it was enough for any of the parties to conclude that it was worth abandoning the most successful quarterback-coach-franchise coalition the NFL has ever seen.