NFL.com news: Hearing footsteps? Brady says he plans to play 10 more years It's good to hear that he is feeling optimistic and healthy but what happens when his contract is over? Can any of you imagine a Joe Montana scenario. It would kill me to watch him in another uniform.
Go ahead, piss him off. Tommy feeds off doubters.
Tom is competitive and he's always had enough self confidence to sign incremental team friendly contracts. He'll be in line for another extension in a couple of years. If as some opine he will be coming off merely another 2 MVP caliber seasons, he will get it. He will be worth as much to this franchise in retirement one day as Favre could have been to GB. That alone will more than compensate for the final extension when his average seasons will still be light years better than the average starting NFL QB...
This always happens when Bill signs a QB. Mallett has about the same odds of replacing the GOAT as KOC did. Mallett is tall and he has a rocket arm. Been there done that. He's got a lot of holes in his on field game beyond off field concerns that will have to be overcome before he even replaces Hoyer. He has been said to be more pro ready than any of the draftees at the position this season. That is more an endictment on them, and it may in fact be a mirage of sorts. As a college HC Petrino has never produced an NFL QB out of the college ranks. About the only one he gets any credit for helping develop early on is Jake Plummer... His rep as an OC is largely predicated on design and play calling prowess that seems to lend itself to inflating the stats of whatever QB he employs.
I really hope that the market at the position being what it is, Bill gets more than a broken heart out of his connection to a value pick. Coaches sons don't always pan out and guys who impress on the board can't always perform under pressure on the field at the next level. That is why selection particularly at the position is as much art as science. And maybe as much luck as either. Brady has always been self motivated, but Bill lives to create competition at all positions.
Brady would have succeeded wherever he went to the same level as his HC absent him. It was the synergy of the two in tandem that allowed both to achieve the heights they have. For many reasons this was clearly the ideal landing spot for Mallet in terms of potential professional development. The same could be said for Matt Cassel and Brian Hoyer among others. But Mallett is clearly not an ideal fit for this system. Neither were KOC or Rohan Davey or Matt Gutierrez or Zak Robinson, and despite the advantage of landing here we all know now what their ceiling was...
Getting drafted in the third only bought KOC (whom I believe Bill also believed carried a first round grade) a year to prove he was developable. It will likely buy Mallett 2 between the hype and the lockout. After that he's either on to someone else's taxi squad or perceived as more pro ready and a better value than anything some desperate GM can hope to draft in 2013. Meanwhile, Brady's heir apparent (whom some of you may have to come to terms with never providing the smooth transition between HOF'ers you've pined for ever since you finally realized Brady was Canton bound) is probably gearing up for his first spring practice and red shirt freshman season...
This draft as it unfolded obviously appealed to Bill less as an opportunity to load up on potential immediate impact talent circa 2010 than as an opportunity to persue potential future value. Maybe that was due in part to circumstances or maybe it was the way he viewed this somewhat odd class overall.