Tom Brady has famously said that he wants to play until he’s 45. That he was able to complete 60.8% of his passes for 4,057 yards, 24 touchdowns, and eight interceptions when his receiver corps was basically Julian Edelman and the Pips, and that he was able to do so at age 42, tells you that there’s still something left in the tank. New England’s 20-13 loss to the Titans in the wild-card round on Saturday represents the first time since 2010 the Patriots were bounced out of the playoffs in their first postseason game, and it feels like the end of that same decade could well be the end of Brady’s 20-year tenure with the team.
It’s worth wondering if Bill Belichick, who stays in tune with the college game as well as any NFL head coach, would be interested in getting his hands on a Jalen Hurts-style player and redefining his offense, especially with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels almost certainly on the way out to accept his own head coaching position elsewhere. And, there’s no guarantee whatsoever that Brady is emotionally tied to the Patriots beyond this season. The 2019 team experienced offensive failures in both coaching and execution all season, and while enough of those were Brady’s responsibility, Brady’s also smart enough to watch the rest of the NFL and see how good other quarterbacks have it these days, while he’s been forced to deal with less in recent times.
“I don’t want to get too much into the future and stuff,” Brady said after the game, which essentially ended for the Patriots when he threw a pick-six to ex-Patriots cornerback Logan Ryan. “I mean, this team has fought hard. We battled every day, we tried to get better, we worked hard to improve and I was proud to be a part of this team. Not only this year, but every year. Again, I just don’t know what’s going to happen and I’m not going to predict it. No one needs to make choices at this point. I love playing football, I love playing for this team. I’ve loved playing for this team for two decades and winning a lot of games. And again, I don’t know what it looks like moving forward, so we’ll just take it day-by-day.”
Perhaps 2019 was the wake-up call both Brady and Belichick needed to tell them that the most successful coach/quarterback relationship in NFL history is about to come to an end. If that’s the case, here are the best landing spots for the greatest quarterback in NFL history.
Raiders | Bears | Buccaneers | Chargers | Colts
5. Las Vegas Raiders
It’s weird to see that team name, and it might be odd to imagine Brady in a Raiders uniform. But Jon Gruden needs a quarterback he trusts, and there’s no indication that he’s committed to Derek Carr beyond the 2019 season.
“He played good,” Gruden said of Carr during his season-end press conference, via the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’m not going to get into all the next-year scenarios. I’m just going to say that 7-9 is a step forward. We took a step forward. Statistically, I think we took a step forward. We’ve got to get a lot of guys healthy and we’ve got a lot of things to look at and evaluate before we start making any assumptions.”
The Raiders have a relatively unproven but fascinating receiver corps, led by tight end Darren Waller. They have one of the NFL’s best offensive lines, and Brady would have no trouble picking up Gruden’s passing game, however complex and verbose it may be. The Raiders’ average defense may not be the best option for Brady given his relatively short window for another Super Bowl, but he might also be interested in working with an organization that really hit the mark in the 2019 draft, and seems to be on an upswing.
Raiders | Bears | Buccaneers | Chargers | Colts
4. Chicago Bears
After three NFL seasons, Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is still at the point in his development where head coach Matt Nagy would like Trubisky to become better at understanding coverages. Eek. Obviously, you’d like a bit more from your quarterback after this long in the league, and it’s entirely possible that Trubisky will never be able to provide it. Meanwhile, the Bears have a receiver group in Allen Robinson, Tarik Cohen, Taylor Gabriel, and Anthony Miller that would out-do anything Brady’s had in years in terms of pure talent. In addition, Chicago has a top-10 defense that would be quite a bit better if it didn’t have such a slim margin for error. The Bears have said that they’re committed to Trubisky’s development, but oh, how that could change if Brady was available and amenable.
Raiders | Bears | Buccaneers | Chargers | Colts
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians has always had a “no risk-it, no biscuit” philosophy regarding his quarterbacks. In other words, he doesn’t mind his quarterbacks taking chances, especially with the deep ball. But Jameis Winston did his best to test Arians’ patience in 2019, becoming the first quarterback in NFL history with 30 touchdowns and 30 interceptions in the same season, as well as setting the league’s single-season record for pick-sixes with seven. The Buccaneers have a decision to make with Winston, who’s played through his rookie contract and fifth-year option. What if that decision was altered by the possibility of Arians working with Brady?
Arians’ offense would actually be ideal for Brady’s existing skill set, with its front-side floods and levels concepts, and its back-side escape routes. Brady would be throwing the ball to Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Breshad Perriman, as well as tight ends Cameron Brate and O.J. Howard. If Arians could get over his tendency to ignore tight ends in the passing game, Brady would have the best two-tight end combo of his career since Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were on the field together — without any of the obvious nightmarish scenarios that ended that particular pairing. Plus, the Bucs saw their defensive DVOA rise from dead last in 2018 to fifth in 2019 under Todd Bowles, so there’s a lot going on with this team if it has a reasonably consistent quarterback.
Raiders | Bears | Buccaneers | Chargers | Colts
2. Los Angeles Chargers
There’s very little chance Philip Rivers will be back with the Chargers with an expiring contract and a 2019 season that saw him throw 20 interceptions, including a league-worst six in the last two minutes of games, or in overtime (Jameis Winston and Baker Mayfield tied for second with three, if you want to know how drastic that number is). Whoever gets the quarterback job in L.A. will benefit from receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, as well as tight end Hunter Henry, and the receiving abilities of Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler. Brady has always enjoyed great connections with his backs in the passing game, and Ekeler in particular would flourish with Brady throwing him the ball. And if you give Brady a route technician like Allen, that’s something pretty special, as well.
The Chargers have a fine defense, and the Los Angeles location that might be a tie-breaker for Brady when he’s making his final decision.
Raiders | Bears | Buccaneers | Chargers | Colts
1. Indianapolis Colts
Schematically, this makes the most sense of all. In 2018, first-year head coach Frank Reich helped Andrew Luck to a Comeback Player of the Year season with a quick passing game in which Luck led the league in touchdown passes thrown with 2.5 seconds or less in the pocket with 26. Luck’s 2019 retirement left the Colts in the lurch, and Reich had to do the most he could with Jacoby Brissett, who once backed up Brady in New England. Brady has excelled in a quick passing game for years, so no worries there. Reich is absolutely brilliant when it’s time to scheme up route concepts with multiple tight ends; Luck had 15 passing touchdowns with two or more tight ends on the field in 2018, and Brissett had eight in 2019. Brady’s obviously familiar with that idea from the Gronkowski/Hernandez days.
There’s an underrated receiver corps in T.Y. Hilton, Parris Campbell, and Marcus Johnson, and backs in Marlon Mack and Nyheim Hines who can catch the ball. Add in a tremendous offensive line, and an interesting defense led by rising star Matt Eberflus, and the idea of Brady with the Colts starts to resonate in fascinating ways.
Raiders | Bears | Buccaneers | Chargers | Colts
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
