Time to throw some more coals on the Tom Brady-to-49ers rumors that have been heating up this offseason.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio joined 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” Friday to promote his new book ‘Playmakers’ and discuss the possibility of Brady leaving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to join his hometown 49ers. Check out the full interview below:
Even though Brady announced his retirement a few weeks ago and reportedly has a Hollywood movie in the works, Florio thinks there’s a path for the G.O.A.T. to play in Santa Clara. Earlier this offseason, Florio said he thinks Brady will be the 49ers' Week 1 quarterback in 2022.
“I've come to the conclusion that Tom Brady has retired from the Buccaneers -- not from football,” Florio said. “He is trying to gracefully exit from Tampa Bay even though he's under contract for one more year."
As Florio noted, Brady negotiated a new contract with the Bucs last year for cap room purposes. He thinks this team-friendly restructure gives Brady leverage to request to be released and make him a free agent. But why would Tampa Bay ever let Brady walk?
“Because he’s Tom Brady,” Florio said. “I think Brady could make the compelling argument that they should just let him go. That they should release him with a June 1 designation so they can still manage the cap hit. Because if they were to cut him before June 1, or put him on reserve/retired or trade him before June 1 – they’re looking at a $32 million cap charge this year. Anything after June 1, it’s $8 million this year and $24 million next year. They’re looking at that no matter what they do with him.”
This scenario would make him more appealing to San Francisco, which doesn’t have a first-round draft pick until 2024 due to last year’s trade to move up to No. 3 overall to select Trey Lance. Last year, NFL reporter Seth Wickersham revealed that the 49ers demurred at a chance to acquire Brady from the New England Patriots in 2020.
"[Brady] wanted to play for the 49ers two years ago,” Florio said. “They foolishly said, 'No thanks.' Now they get another opportunity to make it right while Trey Lance sits on the bench and learns. Who better to learn from than Tom Brady? If he were to join the 49ers, they would instantly become the Super Bowl favorites for 2022 in my mind."
Florio thinks Brady simply has to ask the Bucs to leave, given his stature as arguably the greatest football player who ever lived. Brady also brought the franchise a ring in 2020 before drawing more fans to the stadium in 2021 and hosting a playoff game. Florio also thinks Brady has an ace card up his sleeve and that he can be a whistleblower about potential tampering violations with Tampa Bay before he left New England.
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Bucs coach Bruce Arians has come out and said it would be “bad business” to trade Brady while also claiming it would take five first-rounders to pry him from the franchise. Florio isn’t concerned about the “huffing and puffing” from the outspoken coach.
“I just think that he’s in play,” Florio said of Brady. “The question is where’s it going to be and when’s it going to go down? And how much of a fight is Bruce Arians going to put up. I know Bruce Arians acts like they’re gonna put up a big fight, but I don’t think Bruce Arians is going to be involved in those conversations. I think this is ownership-level stuff.”
Brady, 44, has won seven titles throughout his 22-year career and three MVP awards. Florio believes the San Mateo native only has one thing left to do on his football bucket list.
“People say, ‘What else does Brady have to accomplish?’,” Florio said. “Well, he’s never played for the team he grew up rooting for. That’s got a strong psychological and emotional hold on anyone. … I like a great story. To me, there would be no story better than Tom Brady invading the NFC West, home of the defending Super Bowl champions, playing for the team he grew up rooting for. That would be high drama. It would be compelling. Like I said, in my mind, it would make the Super Bowl favorites right out of the gate.”
