As the NFL offseason rolls on, the Tom Brady Watch continues, as the six-time Super Bowl champion is reportedly pondering a change of scenery heading into the 2020 season. Will Brady stay or go? That is the question, and at this point, there isn’t much to go on other than gut feel.
“I’ll let my gut speak when I know what the offers are,” three-time Super Bowl champion Matt Chatham said on The Zach Gelb Show. “We all kind of know that there’s going to be other offers. As immensely important as Tom has been to the organization over the last 20 years, if the Raiders come out and do something stupid – $40 million per year for two [years], just something crazy where it’s just like, ‘Screw our cap. Let’s get some excitement about the new situation here and just go nuts’ – it might be something that either side couldn’t say no to. Again, I’m not saying that Tom’s chasing money. I think winning is ultimately most important to him.”
Brady’s representation has reportedly spoken with the Raiders, Chargers and Colts about a possible union. But if winning is most important to Brady, he likely won’t end up with any of those teams.
“All three are non-playoff teams,” Chatham said. “You know enough in this league to know turnarounds are possible, but if you’re 43 and as accomplished as Tom, I don’t think anyone who was most recently not in the playoffs is appealing at all. His injection into a team only improves the offense, and that’s only half the game, so you could lose a lot of games with an offense that performs well and the other side doesn’t. So you’re looking for a good team, and good teams take good, deep rosters across the board. The Raiders are pretty far from that.”
The Raiders went 7-9 last season, while the Chargers went 5-11.
[The Chargers], same situation,” Chatham said. “I know Philip is not quite the same as he’s always been, but again, they weren’t a quarterback change away from being a playoff team. And Indy, for all the cap room and all the conversations about a good young team two years ago, they still are a team that’s pretty far away. I just think that almost works in the Patriots’ favor. It’s not like you have a team that was in the final four or eight this past season that wants to make the change and really push it across the line. As long as it’s these others, I think that works in the Pats’ favor.”