Tom Brady shakes hands with Dak Prescott following his final game (Photo Courtesy: Julio Aguilar, Getty Images)
Early Wednesday morning, Tom Brady took to social media to announce his retirement for a second time. It was very ironic because it was on the same day, February 1st, 2022, when he decided to retire for the first time. That lasted just over a month as Brady unretired on March 13th, 2022, to play this past season.
However, this year was more challenging than any other one he has played. His team finished under .500 for the first time in his career when he was the starter. The Patriots went 5-11 in his rookie season when he was backing up Drew Bledsoe. In 2022, the NFC South was the worst division in football, which allowed Brady’s Buccaneers to make the playoffs at 8-9 and host the Cowboys in a playoff game. The Cowboys defeated Tampa Bay in that game 31-14, but Brady did throw for 351 yards and two touchdowns. However, early in the game, Brady threw a crucial red zone interception when they trailed just 6-0 that shifted the momentum of the game.
Many believed last year that Brady didn’t have a great relationship with former Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians, despite winning a Super Bowl in their first year together. That was why his initial retirement surprised everyone, it seemed that he didn’t want to play in Tampa Bay anymore, but he was still under contract for another season, so his only leverage was to retire. Three weeks after Brady unretired, the Buccaneers announced that Arians would be stepping down as the head coach, and he would be moving into a role in the front office. Todd Bowles, the defensive coordinator was named the head coach for the 2022 season.
Rich Ohrnberger, a talk radio host in San Diego reported that during the 2021 season Tom Brady and Byron Leftwich, the offensive coordinator at the time, would put together the game plan for the week, then at the end of the week, Arians would come in and cross off the plays that he didn’t like with a red pen. This frustrated Brady primarily because being in the league for over 20 seasons, he wanted the power to run his own offense. During the 2022 season, the Buccaneers offense ranked 25th in scoring, averaging just 18.2 points per game and they also ranked 25th in red zone touchdown percentage at just 50%. Brady still put up respectable numbers as he finished third in the league in passing yards behind Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert. He also set NFL records for completions and pass attempts in a single season with 490 and 733. This led me and many others to believe that he still had something left in the tank and he would hit free agency again at age 45, looking for an eighth Super Bowl.
There were a couple of teams that I thought would potentially be interested in Tom Brady and that he would also be interested in them. The first would be the Raiders. Las Vegas is in a loaded AFC West, and after a loss in week sixteen to the Steelers on Christmas Eve, which essentially eliminated them from playoff contention, they told quarterback Derek Carr to stay home for the final two weeks of the season, and they would look to trade him in the off-season. It seemed odd that a team would move off its franchise leader in just about every major passing statistic with two years left on his contract without a backup plan. Brady and Vegas seemed like a perfect fit. They have great weapons, which would have been something he looked for at this stage in his career. Davante Adams, arguably the best WR in the NFL over the past couple of years, Hunter Renfrow, who is the perfect type of shifty, quick, slot receiver that Brady made a living off in New England, and then they also have TE Darren Waller, who is top five at his position. Then also, there is the Josh McDaniels element, who spent many years as the offensive coordinator in New England with Brady. McDaniels was the offensive coordinator for Brady in New England from 2006-2008 and then from 2012-2019. Brady won three Super Bowls with him calling plays and two regular-season MVP awards.
Another team that was floated out there that seemed like a reasonable possibility was the Miami Dolphins. There were many reasons why the Dolphins would have made sense. Earlier in 2022, the NFL came down on the Dolphins for tampering in 2019, when Brady was still with the Patriots as their owner Stephen Ross has ties to Michigan football, which is where Brady went to college. They planned to try and bring in Brady and Sean Payton in 2020. Ross was suspended and fined 1.5 million dollars. Brady’s kids are also now living in Miami with his ex-wife. Now, here are the reasons it would have made sense on the field for Brady to join the Dolphins in 2023.
They also have great weapons, as Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combined for 3,066 receiving yards in 2022, which is the fourth most all-time by a duo. They are also two of the fastest players in the entire NFL. The Dolphins already have question marks at quarterback, with Tua Tagovailoa suffering multiple concussions this season and has yet to play fourteen games in any of his three NFL seasons. Not to mention, when he is healthy, he is nowhere near the caliber of player Tom Brady is. The Dolphins also have a great young head coach in Mike McDaniel, who is from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree, whose offensive system has taken over in the NFL. During the divisional round of the playoffs, seven of the eight teams that were remaining had offensive head coaches, which is a sign of where the league is headed. Joining the Dolphins would have also allowed him to play against the Patriots twice a year, which is something he would have loved.
The last team that could have been a perfect and the best fit is the San Francisco 49ers. Brady grew up in San Mateo, California which is thirty minutes away from San Francisco, where his parents currently live. He was a huge 49ers and Joe Montana fan when he was growing up, by nobody could’ve ever thought he would have ended up a better player than Montana. The 49ers have repeatedly gotten to the end and fallen short over the past few years. They have made the NFC championship three of the last four years, getting to the Super Bowl once in 2019 before losing to the Chiefs. They have succeeded with Jimmy Garoppolo, but he could never make the big throws late in the game. They paid a huge price to trade up and draft Trey Lance, who broke his ankle in week one this season. Then after Garoppolo went down once again in week thirteen, they turned to the last pick of the draft Brock Purdy, from Iowa State and he led them to eight straight wins before he went down in the NFC championship game with a torn UCL, and he is now facing a long recovery. He was then replaced with longtime backup Josh Johnson, who got knocked out of the game with a concussion. Kyle Shanahan was only able to run eighteen passes in a game where they trailed by double digits the entire second half. Are you starting to sense a theme with these 49ers’ quarterbacks? Yes, they are frequently always injured. Tom Brady has not missed a start due to injury since 2008 and he could be the perfect guy to get them over the hump. For some reason, he didn't want them, or they didn't want him. I believe they didn't want him because of how much they have invested in Trey Lance.
Either way, Brady had other options, and I think he made the wrong choice to retire, and he may have left another championship on the table. It says a lot about a player when retiring at the age of forty-five is a surprise. There will never be another player like Brady, and the Patriots should have realized that three years ago.
Have an opposing viewpoint to this opinion? Let us know. All views are welcomed. Send your thoughts to our Editorial Staff – Dylan Hicks dhicks@student.dean.edu or Dean Daily Faculty Advisor, Professor John Rooke jrooke@dean.edu
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