primetime
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2005
- Messages
- 13,627
- Reaction score
- 15,375
I would add that I'm not even sure Belichick COULD reload for one last run with Brady, even if he wanted to. I don't think the cap space is there to pull it off unless Brady took less money that he'd realistically be willing to accept in the first place. To really do it and have it actually work Brady would have to take some crazy low deal because of the overall state of the team's salary cap space.
The miracle is that it took this long to reach a point where they just couldn't square the circle of keeping Brady vs. building the roster.
Yeah, I agree with this completely. At best they bring back Brady and lose basically all of their free agents except maybe Slater and McCourty and have no space to sign or trade for anyone else. So they'd be looking at a multiyear commitment to Brady with the team only getting worse from last season unless they hit a jackpot in the draft. This wasn't an ideal way to do it, as Stidham is a mid-round pick and a total unknown and I think Belichick would give his right arm to go back in time and choose Lamar Jackson over Sony Michel, but at the time it didn't seem like Brady would leave.