Is the 2016 season Brady's last best hope for a 5th Super Bowl Title?

I heard Zolak mention this on 9.85 shortly after Brady's rehearing was rejected by the 2nd Circuit Court. Zolak seems to think that given the makeup of this team, and given where Brady is at in his long career, this might be Tom's last best hope for a fifth Super Bowl ring.

Why are the odds in our favor now? For starters, you have a talented young defense (spearheaded by Collins, Hightower, and Butler) that's beginning to hit its stride and a high-powered offense stacked with many weapons (Gronk, Edelman, Amendola, Dion Lewis, Blount, Hogan, etc). Not to mention, Brady is coming off a prolific year that's almost unheard of for a quarterback his age.

So if there's ever a time to win another title, this might be Brady's year to do it. After that, according to Zolak, it's gonna become increasingly harder.

To start with, you have prominent vets who are slated to become Free Agents in 2017 (Bennet, Chris Long, Pot Roast). The Big Three on defense (Butler, Collins, Hightower) will be coming off their rookie contracts, and it may be unlikely (with the current salary cap) that all three will receive extensions.

And perhaps most controversially, as Brady turns 40 next year, there could be a noticeable drop-off in his performance on the field. If with so much as a gradual decline, Brady may not be able to win games solely on his own.

So that Zolak's opinion in a nutshell. Do you agree with his assessment? Is there a need for urgency?

I agree that the upcoming season could be his best chance due to the reasons that you've mentioned.

That said, we've seen Brady take some teams a lot further than many of us expected, so I certainly wouldn't count him out under any circumstances in the future.

This was part of a discussion I had with my brother about not trading away Jimmy in the off-season.

Brady will likely play in 28 games not including playoffs between now and when Jimmy becomes a free agent. At that point he will be 40 and turn 41 before the following season starts.

Now I'm not saying at that point it will be over for TB but my point was don't trade Jimmy if he plays well because that's the time when you might want to make a difficult decision if TB hasn't done so himself.

Hopefully TB still going strong and you could do a Cassell like tag and trade but if not at least you didn't give away a young promising QB assuming he does well in his 4 game try out.

I easily give TB a 2 year window and to Zo's point this year seems to be a better opportunity so go get em.

Zo seems like a good enough guy, but he's all over the place with this type of stuff. He may express an entirely different opinion this morning, a third one tomorrow and be back to this one later in the week. I'll feel more confident in his takes when he musters the nuts to regularly take on Shaughnessy, his weekly guest, because he doesn't do it very often

One of the most entertaining and interesting things to watch is how Bill remakes the team year after year to be a contender. Yeah there are a lot of free agents coming up but there is also 70 million worth of cap space to play with. I don't buy that this is his last best year because, while I have no clue the exact specifics, I believe in Bill giving him another stacked team year after year. Just as an example everyone is talking about how deep next year's draft is at RB. Imagine getting a 1200 yard a year work horse along with Gronk and Eldeman. This offense will be set for the rest of his career. That said I would not be surprised if the pats had a top 5 offense and defense this year and would be shocked if either unit finished under 15th. Should be a lot of fun to watch.

There is literally no reason to think this is his last chance

we've been hearing this for at least 12 years now

no reason not to believe this can't continue for much longer given what teams need to spend simply to have a guy like ryan tannehill QB their teams

If the weapons are still there..and we see no decline in his game...should be more than this year. At some point we will see a decline (right?) but with him he just seems to get better with age

In short, no.

I don't think it would necessarily be his last, but I could argue probably his best because the roster is stacked similarly to how it was stacked in 2014. There are good to great players at almost every position on the roster. I think the D could even be better than 2014 actually...if things translate to the field. I've said it all off season, provided health and an OLine that actually blocks, I don't see anything stopping a team that a) won it all two seasons ago (albeit diff. personnel), b) one that was 10-0 before injuries and still came within really a missed extra point (still live Gost) from being in a SB they no doubt would have won and c) only got better (on paper anyway) this off season. And Scar is back, even if it turns out being just a one year rental.
So it may be his best chance, but not his last.

The roster past this season worries me a bit and could look DRASTICALLY different in 2017, but no overthinking that now. We have to be the favorites, even with Brady gone for 25 percent of the regular season.

Until we see him begin to decline, I would have to say no. Further, knowing how many changes there always are with this team every offseason, there's no telling what the team will look like even a year from now... let alone two.

Yes. No he will never have a better shot than this year for the rest of his career. Even if 2 years from now they build a better cast of 52 around him he will be 41 and in a worse spot to win overall.

I think he can win 2 more if things go right but this is his best chance for number 5.

Skit-Zo needs his meds.

Pats have tons of cap room, could sign 2 of the Big 4, draft well, add some decent FAs there is no reason they cannot be a contender in 2017 or 2018.

The key is TB12's performance.

robertweathers said:

Skit-Zo needs his meds.

Pats have tons of cap room, could sign 2 of the Big 4, draft well, add some decent FAs there is no reason they cannot be a contender in 2017 or 2018.

The key is TB12's performance.

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Big Four? Butler....Collins......Hightower.... Who else of note is up for an extension?

Chiuba E. Obele said:

Big Four? Butler....Collins......Hightower.... Who else of note is up for an extension?

Click to expand...

Sheard is done after 2016.

Yeah, it is much too early to tell at this point if it is indeed Brady's last, best chance for a 5th ring. There are so many moving parts during the course of a season, as we have all seen across the NFL landscape time and time again, that any definitive statements made at this point veer straight into the direction of speculation and conjecture.

robertweathers said:

Sheard is done after 2016.

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Ooooohhhhhh.....

TB has shown no decline and i dont expect much for at least the next 2-3 years. Still the best in the game. ditto for BB. I think Tom will have multiple opportunities to win Super Bowls. That being said-I think this years team could be the strongest he'll play on for the rest of his career(im guessing he plays 4-5 more,incl. this year). I dont worry about decline in Tom-I do worrry about decline in JE-maybe not this year, but over the the next two-hes taken a lot of hits-hes tough as nails-but so was welker-and we saw how quickly he lost it. Its a shame since JE is one of my all-time favorite patriots. the uncertainty of how many among butler,high,jamie,sheard and bennett we can kep beyond this year. if any of those guys get replaced by draft picks-that will be ahuge drop off regardless of how good the draft picks. Pretty much nobody contributes a lot as a rookie. but guess what? every other team in the nfl has to deal with this stuff. I believe The Pats will be legit SB contenders through at least 2018. If they somehow keep the Big 3 on D-then they could potentially be even stronger the next couple years than they are now-and on paper,anyway, theyre the strongest team in the league right now. But thats a big if.

Brady isn't declining at all and I don't see why the Patriots couldn't actually come out of the next offseason even better than they will brew this year. This is an incredibly well run franchise that will have around 65 million for free agency. They went into this free agency 5 million under the cap, had what most viewed as one of if not the best off-season of any team in football and are now 10 million under the cap. They will need to use much of it For existing purposes but that is still an exceptional use of their resources and it's hard to see how they wouldn't be able to turn 65 million into a great off-season. Many moves to be made but there isn't a better front office to make them.