Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady announced his retirement from the NFL back in February. Since then, there has been much speculation on what’s next for Brady, who’s been linked to everything from possible television deals with major networks to a potential unretirement.
Brady himself said that while right now he feels good about his decision to retire, he doesn’t know how he will feel six months from now and that he will never say never on a potential return to football.
The legendary quarterback’s intentions have always been hard to figure out, but Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk gave an interesting theory on Brady’s intentions going forward on The Dan Patrick Show Monday.
Mike Florio (@ProFootballTalk) absolutely thinks that we'll see Tom Brady playing again… possibly for the #Niners. He put a pie to the face bet on it with @PaulPabst this morning. pic.twitter.com/xEcaRmR838
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) March 1, 2022
“Absolutely, I can see Tom Brady on the 49ers. Brady wanted to play for the 49ers when he was a free agent after leaving the Patriots, and the 49ers said ‘No, thank you.'”
“I think the 49ers would admit that they would probably have a Super Bowl trophy or two if they had gone with Tom Brady over Jimmy G. I don’t think Brady is retired, I think that he is retired from the Buccaneers.”
There are still a ton of hurdles that would need to be moved in order for Brady to end up on the San Francisco 49ers in 2022. Should he return, he would still be under contract with the Bucs.
That means that the Bucs would have to willingly release Brady or trade him to the 49ers. And Rick Stroud of The Tampa Bay Times reported Tuesday that Bruce Arians and the team would not accommodate a trade if Brady wanted to return and play elsewhere.
Arians was asked if Tom Brady wanted to come back with another team, would he accommodate him. “Nope. Bad business.”
— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) March 1, 2022
When asked what the price should be if Brady had to be traded, Arians said that the asking price would be five first-round picks.
Bruce Arians was asked about trading Brady and what it would take. “Five No. 1’s.”
— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) March 1, 2022
It’s extremely unlikely that the 49ers would be willing to trade nearly that much for a player that just retired last month. So it may be just a wild theory in the end for Brady to play for the 49ers going forward. But we’ll see how this develops.
