Tom Brady is a free agent, but he has no plans to retire. The Patriots can't franchise him. Would he actually be interested in playing for a different coach, owner and franchise than the only one he's ever known? It seems unlikely.
But unlikely things do occasionally happen. Brett Favre playing for the Vikings. Peyton Manning playing against the Colts. San Francisco trading Joe Montana. Dan Marino, some will recall, nearly played for the Vikings. There's probably even some John Elway-related trade talk I'm forgetting about.
None of those guys were with their teams as long as Brady has been with New England, and none of them won 6 Super Bowls, either. But Brady was quoted recently saying he still felt he had a lot to prove. What better way to do so than go win a Super Bowl with somebody else but Bill Belichick? We can dream, even if that dreaming involves a washed-up 44-year-old Brady getting the snot beat out of him with some lousy franchise that winds up going 4-12.
Realistically, he's gonna re-sign for one more year with New England. Slightly less realistically, he's going to sign with some playoff-caliber team that needs a veteran quarterback to help them get to a Super Bowl / sell lots of tickets and merchandise. Here are six possibilities, one for each of the guy's rings.
1. Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers are apparently going to move on from Philip Rivers, so why not get an older, similarly immobile quarterback who at least don't throw a bunch of interceptions. If anyone can put fannies in seats in Los Angeles, Tom Brady is the guy. He's a California pretty boy, I'm sure no one has forgotten. The rest of the Chargers roster is competitive. This would be a dream come true for the Chargers, which is just one of the reasons it probably won't happen. But I've already heard this kicked around by media types and it won't be the last we've heard of it.
2. Los Angeles Rams. Yes, the Rams are financially committed to Jared Goff. But they can't be overly happy with the season he just had, and if they can find some other team to take on his contract and make it work with the salary cap, who knows. Probably unfeasible, but creative things can happen. And again, the NFL wants to make Los Angeles financially viable. This be the way.
3. Chicago Bears. The Bears have a better roster than what they showed this year. Mitchell Trubisky was a big part of the problem, and so too (I think) was Matt Nagy. So how about a Josh McDaniels-Tom Brady pairing here? I don't know if Brady really wants to go to Chicago, and I don't think it'd be wise for him to go to a division featuring two of the league's final eight teams. But ego makes people do irrational things sometimes.
4. Jacksonville Jaguars. Nick Foles wasn't the answer, and most likely Gardner Minshew isn't either. Jacksonville does have some nice offensive pieces in place and some talent on defense, even though it didn't show it this year. The Jaguars will at the very least place a call to Brady's reps.
5. Indianapolis Colts. I think the Colts are smarter than this, but they're certainly not married to Jacoby Brissett as their starter, and they have a talented roster everywhere else. How much better would Brady have to be than Brissett for this to suddenly look like a legit candidate to make a deep playoff run? Not much.
6. Oakland Raiders. Jon Gruden is definitely thinking about this. He'd need to ship Derek Carr out somehow, but that should be viable (one of the above teams would be a candidate. Brady helping to make the Las Vegas Raiders a thing sounds pretty intriguing. If Al Davis were alive this deal would have been verbally done a few hours after the Patriots were eliminated.
I know: He's probably going to re-up with New England. But I can dream, right?
--Andy Richardson