For those of you who were in the camp that the San Francisco 49ers should get Tom Brady, you’re about to be disappointed. For those of you (like myself) who were in the camp of hoping the 49ers didn’t do something stupid, we can relax.
NFL reporter Larry Fitzgerald Sr. (father of Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald)) reported Friday that the soon-to-be Las Vegas Raiders are planning to give Tom Brady a two-year $60 million contract.
$60 million to a 42-year-old quarterback. It doesn’t get more Raider than that. Then again, free agency is going to be chaos for Brady. I don’t doubt for a second the Raiders are the only team trying to throw that kind of money at Brady. For the Raiders, it makes sense for their situation. They are about to move to Las Vegas and got Jon Gruden as a coach. If they add Brady as the quarterback, that turns the Raiders into a much more attractive...uhm...attraction?
Of course, that would mean the Raiders move on from Derek Carr. The Raiders would be on the hook for $7.9 million in dead money if they departed from their current signal-caller to get Brady. As far as Brady and that $60 million contract, it wouldn’t be a bad guess to think that it was loaded with mostly guaranteed money.
So why all of this on a San Francisco 49ers site? There’s no way, even if they were to release Jimmy Garoppolo that the 49ers could pay that outrageous salary that Brady could demand. The only way they would get Brady would be for the home town discount. I’ve already talked about how getting Brady is a mistake, but it would be an even larger mistake to allocate $60 million to him. $60 million that could be used on all the other free agents the 49ers need to hold onto.
But still, Brady’s free agency adventures are just getting started. If that’s what the Raiders are offering, does he take the cash? Go back to New England (and a familiar system) for cheaper? Or is there another alternative?