With the draft a month away, the Patriots have some contractual issues to take care of. If Gronk comes back he’s going to want more money. They may look to extend McCourty a year and convert some of his salary this year into signing bonus to reduce his cap hit. Edelman deserves a pay bump more than anyone in the NFL. The big question, however, is when they will extend Tom Brady.
It’s not a if at this point. Even if Bill felt Tom was tailing off and showing signs of decline he would have no choice but to pay him. There is nobody in line to replace him and I highly doubt he wants Brian Hoyer or Danny Etling to be his starting quarterback. So when Tom gets extended, what might his new deal look like?
For starters, it will reduce his cap hit this year. He has a base salary of 14 million and a cap hit of 27 million. The team is in need of cap relief this year so that number would come down to say, 20 million, with the other 7 being converted into signing bonus.
As for the length, is there any question it will be a 3 year deal. As I said, you are riding with Tom until he retires at this point. We all know how he wants to play to age 45, and that is three years away.
He has quietly made it clear that he’s not about to take another ridiculous hometown discount. The years of him being drastically underpaid while guys who are now out of the NFL are still making more money per year than him.
The two comparable contracts, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees, look like this:
The Brees deal is more comparable due to their age and length of contract, although the AAV of Rodgers is what he will be looking for. Realistically what can we expect Brady and Kraft to work out?
The starting point would be a 3 year, 70 million dollar deal with roughly 40 guaranteed. That gives him a higher number than Brees and more guaranteed cash. That is where the conversation starts. He gets less guaranteed than Rodgers but with less years than Aaron. He does, however, fall 10 million short of Rodgers’ AAV, but will that matter as much as the guaranteed money? I don’t think so, but after nearly two decades of below market contracts and checking his ego every year, older, more cocky Tom might say no, I want the highest number in the NFL.
A deal is going to get worked out, and this time it won’t be cheap. But he’s the best quarterback in the NFL, and with the current offensive roster, he will earn every penny of that contract and he will be the only guy that could win with the weapons on that team.
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