Tuesday’s media tour de force by Bucs coach Bruce Arians was aimed, apparently, at letting quarterback Tom Brady know that, since he’s under contract to Tampa Bay for 2022, his options are to play for the Bucs or to play for no one. Let's have a look at the whole story.
Brady initially signed a two-year contract with the Buccaneers in 2020. Last year, to create $19 million in cap space for a team that was trying to keep the band together, Brady signed a new two-year deal. He didn’t receive a raise over his $25 million annual compensation (a tremendous bargain for the Bucs), either last year or this year. It was simply a device to lower his number in a cap-crunched season, due to the pandemic. He didn’t have to do it. But he did it, primarily to help the team keep other players — not to enrich himself, or even to get anything close to his actual value.
So far, only Arians (true to form) has assumed the tough-guy posture on Brady’s contract. But Arians won’t be making the decision on this one. If/when Brady decides he wants to play again, he’ll make the first call not to Arians but to G.M. Jason Licht. If necessary, Brady will go to ownership and make a simple and persuasive case for his freedom.