After twenty years with the New England Patriots, Tom Brady and the Patriots are finally parting ways. Brady is moving down south as he has signed a 2 year, 50 million dollar contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In his years with the Patriots, Brady has led New England to 9 AFC East titles, as well as 40 playoff games, 9 Super Bowl appearances, and winning 6 Super Bowls championships. He now signs with a Buccaneers team that hasn’t seen the playoffs since the 2007 season when they lost in the Wildcard round to the New York Giants who would go on to defeat Tom Brady and the Patriots in the Super Bowl. In his contract with the Bucs they had some extra agreements which included a no trade clause, and they also will not put a franchise tag on Brady after his contract expires.
During the 2019-2020 season the Buccaneers finished with a 7-9 record with Jameis Winston as their starting quarterback. Winston’s stats last season included 5,109 passing yards, 33 TD’s, and 30 INT, which he led the NFL in. Compared to Brady who had 4,057, 24 TD’s, and 8 INT. This is a huge improvement for the Bucs at the quarterback and with their defense led by Justin Pierre-Paul, and Ndamukong Suh they should be seeing a big jump in performance and should be looking at the playoffs and beyond as a goal for the upcoming season.
For the Patriots they have two quarterbacks on their roster as of now and either have a chance of starting the first game of the season. The first option is Jarret Stidham who was drafted in last year’s draft in the 4th round by the Patriots, who only had 4 throws in 2 games this year for 14 yards and 1 INT. The second opinion is Brian Hoyer who just signed a 1 year 1.05 million dollar contract with the Pats, they made this decision, because Hoyer has been on the roster before and knows the Belichick system and can help teach Stidham.
Another option for the Patriots could be trading up in the draft and taking a quarterback then. There are plenty of opinions at the quarterback position in this year’s draft even if they don’t trade up and hope for a Brady scenario once again. If they traded up, the ideal pick for them would be Tua Tagovailoa who was Alabama’s starting quarterback this past season before suffering a right hip injury against Mississippi St. and missed the rest of the season and dropped on draft boards. Another option could be sitting back and taking a quarterback in the late first round and not trading up and picking either Jordan Love from Utah State or Jacob Eason from Washington. Lastly they could also just wait until the third or fourth round to take a quarterback because options Jake Fromm from Georgia and Jalen Hurts from Oklahoma should still be available. The Patriots have many different options and now look for the new face of their franchise after 20 years.
