How will the Tampa Bay Buccaneers replace Tom Brady?

Tom Brady will not be competing on a football field next fall. It is certain, at least if you believe that his second retirement will last.

In the past, NFL players had to file paperwork with the league office to receive certain retirement benefits and determine whether a player had officially retired or not to know if the decision would stand.

But times have changed.

“There is no requirement to submit official documents,” Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesperson, wrote in an email. “A public statement from a player, such as attending a press conference or posting a video from a beach, would suffice.”

By the “post a video from a beach” standard, Brady is officially retired, as far as the league is concerned, and time may begin to count his eligibility for benefits and being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

There could be one more slight delay in this process, however: Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, told CNN that he wanted to sign Brady to a one-day contract so that he can retire as a member of the club. Patriots – the team he played for in 20 of his 23 NFL seasons. The token gesture is sometimes used so that a star player can get a proper goodbye from the team they were most associated with.

Brady’s retirement, however, leaves others — notably the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Fox — pondering their future. Brady was one of the greatest players in the history of the game, and his absence will have a ripple effect on the sport.

The Buccaneers must first determine how serious Brady is about retirement. If his decision isn’t set in stone, they’ll have to consider whether they want to try to get him back. But assuming he’s done, they must answer a question that all NFL teams ultimately face: Are we competitive or not?

The Buccaneers snuck in a division title and a playoff appearance despite a losing record this season. Injuries piled up for the Buccaneers, a veteran-laden team that had mortgaged its future to be competitive as long as Brady was on the roster.

Now that he isn’t and the bill is over, is GM Jason Licht blowing the team away? Will team quarterback Blaine Gabbert get promoted, or will the team seek a replacement like Jimmy Garoppolo, who is expected to enter free agency after six seasons with the San Francisco 49ers ? (The fact that Garoppolo was considered Brady’s heir apparent in New England adds intrigue.)

Whatever Tampa Bay decides, Brady will dwell on the team’s record. Due to the way his contract was restructured last year, he will count $35 million toward the team’s salary cap for the 2023 season. The Buccaneers have already exceeded the salary cap by $55 million. , according to Spotrac.

There are some bureaucratic maneuvers the Buccaneers can engage in to flaunt the success of Brady’s contract, but ultimately they will have to account for that money.

Brady, who had a lot of clout with Tampa Bay, made a lot more money each year he played for the Buccaneers than he did in his time with the Patriots, where he took on a number of favorable contracts. the team. Even as a slightly diminished player, he could still have ordered a large sum to play next season. But unlike some peers who hang around for paychecks, Brady will be well compensated in his post-NFL life.

Last offseason, Fox signed Brady to a huge deal to join the network’s top NFL announce booth once he retires. It came shortly after Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, who had called Fox’s top games for two decades, decamped to ESPN together.

Brady’s deal was reported by the New York Post to be worth $375 million over 10 years, though Fox did not confirm that amount and declined to comment.

Without Buck and Aikman, and with Brady still playing, Fox promoted Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, a former Carolina Panthers tight end, to their top stand. Burkhardt and Olsen will call the Super Bowl next weekend. But we can assume that Brady will replace Olsen at some point, possibly soon.

Ahead of this season, Olsen said he would try to do the best job possible to make the decision for Fox executives to replace him with Brady as difficult as possible. What if they still do?

“At the end of the day, I’m a big boy,” he said. said in a radio interview last month. “I know what I signed up for. I took a chance on myself. I rolled the dice.