There have been several teams linked to Tom Brady this offseason, and all indications have been that the quarterback is legitimately open to playing somewhere other than New England. However, it’s possible the number of opportunities available for the 42-year-old is being overstated.
ESPN’s Dianna Russini said on “Get Up!” Tuesday morning that she believes Brady is not generating as much interest from teams as he had hoped. The reporter floated the idea that a lot of the information we have heard about teams wanting to sign Brady has come from the quarterback’s camp.
“I don’t think any of us have really considered that maybe some of this woo’ing or some of the interest that is put out there on the side of Brady is to save him embarrassment is the market isn’t as robust as you would think for Tom Brady,” Russini said, as transcribed by Ryan Hannable of WEEI.com. “When you start looking at it and breaking down the details of it, is it really the smart decision for your organization? I think there’s a very good amount of teams out there who do not believe Tom Brady is their answer.”
Russini went on to say that Brady would love the opportunity to play for the Tennessee Titans and his former teammate Mike Vrabel, but she does not believe the Titans are “all in” on signing Brady. One team that does appear to have legitimate interest is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but they don’t seem like they are anywhere near the top of Brady’s wish list.
We’ve said all along that we think Brady will end up re-signing with the Patriots, and there hasn’t been any real reason to go back on that. There were several reports last month that all came out at once claiming Brady is planning to leave New England, and the timing made it seem like Brady’s camp was trying to turn up the heat on the Patriots.
Brady is free to negotiate with other teams in less than a week, so we should have a much better idea of the direction things are heading at that point. If he ends up staying with the Patriots, the structure of his contract may be a lot different from what you might expect.
