Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

Here's my other major scenario:

(1) Brady plans to play another 5-6 years.

(2) At a minimum, he gets one more extension from the Patriots past 2014. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that he is extended through 2017 or 2018 (your choice).

(3) That said, you are not required to assume that Brady actually finishes out the contract (if you prefer to consider that possibility).

(4) Mallett will not wait that long for a chance to start. Either he's traded or signs elsewhere.

So how would you find the new starter in that case? Would you risk pulling a 2011 Colts, if such a scenario were plausible?

Re: Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

No offense, but I find these hypotheticals rather limited in value.

There is no evidence right now that TFB can't continue playing at a HOF level for some time. Brett Favre, John Elway and Joe Montana clearly showed deterioration in their game after age 35. Peyton Manning had a potentially career-threatening injury with a huge contract that complicated things. Unless injury or deterioration in play change things, or he chooses to walk away, Brady will be the QB of the Patriots. That may be for 2, 3, 5 or more years. As of right now, Brady says he wants to play for quite some time, and there is no reason to doubt him. The FO will monitor the situation closely, and adjust their plans. Right now Ryan Mallett is the backup plan, and I doubt that will continue if Brady continues to play at his current level.

Brady knows what a special thing he has going with the Pats. The Pats know what a special thing they have with Brady. No one's going to screw it up as long as it can keep going.

Re: Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

OK: let me just put it slightly differently.

At some point, the Patriots are going to have to replace TFB. If that's far enough in the future that we can say Mallett's not the obvious answer, then what would be your plan for replacing him?

Re: Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

I would always keep a backup option in place. Right now it's Mallett. He's in year 2 of a 4 year contract. Assuming that Brady looks to keep going past 2014, I'd probably aim at drafting AJ McCarron in 2014 and grooming him as the next backup/possible successor. Mallett would either be traded or would move on in FA after 2014, with the Pats hopefully getting at least a comp pick. Even if they didn't, they would have had a backup for 4 years. By 2015 hopefully McCarron would be ready to be the backup. If Brady keeps on going beyond 2017 or so, another backup option would have to be drafted. It's too far away to identify who that would be. But since TB's current deal expires after 2014, in a year or so we should know more: if Brady really wants to keep playing he'll likely restructure and extend for at least a couple more years, and given his current level of play, I can't imagine that the team wouldn't want to accomodate him.

Re: Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

So long as TFB is healthy, productive, and expresses interest in continuing to play, then we keep grabbing mid-late round QBs and grooming them to take over. Ideally we showcase them in blowouts and trade them for loot if the situation warrants it.

Re: Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

Personally I think there's a great deal of value in these hypotheticals. Brady's exit at some stage is a reality too many Pats fans don't want to face up too.

Here's my radical and no doubt flame-able option:

Give Brady another year on his new contract and then if the value is there, trade him. The Bengals got a first and two seconds for Carson Palmer. The 49'ers got a 1st overall for a 36 year old Joe Montana. Providing the haul is good enough, that would set up the team with good prospects to help smooth what would already be a difficult transition to a Brady-less future.

option 2: Go the Green Bay Packers/ Aaron Rodgers route and find the guy regardless of whether it involves sacrificing a high pick well before it's really needed. Option 2 and option 1 are not mutually exclusive.

Option 3: this is basically the same as what I suggested in the other scenario of yours, ie: Draft a QB every year until you find the one you want to become your new franchise guy.


The one route it would be absolutely wrong to go down is to bury one's head in the sand and wait until the very last minute and start desperately trying to acquire a new QB because Brady suddenly became much worse, decided to retire or started suffering from serious injuries on too regular a basis.

Re: Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

I think that it's an interesting issue myself. . . . and one that begs the question of how do you do it without becoming the 2011 Colts?

Re: Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

The 2011 Colts were an extreme case. First, because they had 0 backup behind Manning, and made no preparations even when Manning had multiple neck issues, and were caught with their pants down. Second, because they ended up winning the "suck for Luck" lottery and got the best QB prospect in the past decade to build around. Neither of those is likely to happen to the Pats. We've already showed that we can lose Brady fora season and go 11-5 instead of 2-14. If (God forbid) the Pats played next season without Brady I bet they would go 9-7 or better, and probably better. But I doubt they would be SB contenders, and that's what's key. The question is how man SBs we have left with Brady at the helm.

The 49ers had the luxury of already having Steve Young in place when they traded Montana. Of your options, I favor #2 and #3. The question with #2 is figuring out how long Brady has left. The Packers drafter Rogers when there were longer contracts for rookies, and they sat him for 3 years before deciding (correctly) to move on from Favre. It doesn't make sense to spend a high pick on a QB too early.

This is agree with 100%. And I'm fairly confident that won't happen.

Re: Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

It's not the Colts scenario that worries me, it's the Dolphins. Transitioning from one mediocre QB to another for more than two decades.

Re: Hypothetical #2: What if Brady plays another 5-6 years?
 

If Brady retired today would you be confident that Mallett could replace him?

Regardless of when he retires we will always have someone behind him.
Now the perfect replacement? That could take years before it happens because Brady is one of the best ever. We will always look back.

Im not worried at all.