Every coach and general manager has been careful to avoid two words at the NFL combine.
Tom. Brady.
The Patriots quarterback and pending free agent has been the talk of the town in Indianapolis as New England and Brady are reportedly set to open contract negotiations, but in the meantime, the higher-ups at the combine are avoiding the talk around Brady, for fear of a tampering change.
Well, almost everyone.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians seemed to step into tampering territory during his press conference on Tuesday. Arians was asked for an example of a quarterback that he would inquire about next month.
“Tom Brady,” Arians said, via The Athletic. “Philip is another guy. We’ll see.”
Arians probably has nothing to fear. The Patriots aren’t likely to go after him. In fact, they’re OK with teams tampering with Brady this week, because they want him to have a sense of the market, per NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran. If Brady knows what’s out there, he can make a decision about whether he will or won’t return to the Patriots. Bill Belichick wouldn’t want to enter free agency without a plan at quarterback, only to see Brady sign with another team after a few days of negotiations. By that point, the Patriots’ contingency plans at the position might have signed elsewhere.
While Arians boldly stated his interest in Brady, most coaches and general managers played coy. Titans coach Mike Vrabel, for example, engaged in an elusive exchange with a reporter during his press conference. The Titans, after all, seem like a natural fit for Brady.
“Why would you say that’s a great fit? I’m just curious,” he said.
The reporter responded that the team wants to win now and has weapons. It also doesn’t hurt that Vrabel and Brady are former teammates.
“We were 9-7. I know a lot of players in the league. … Tom’s under contract. I just was curious why you thought it’d be a great fit,” Vrabel said.
Does he agree?
“That I know Tom or I’m friends with Tom?” he asked.
We get it. He’s not talking Brady. The story was the same for Oakland Raiders general manager Mike Mayock.
“Every position gets evaluated every year, and if we can upgrade it, we will,” he said.
What about the Indianapolis Colts? Speculation ties them to Brady. They seem to have plenty of spending money to sign Brady and a surplus of skill players to support him in the transition.
“I’m not gonna comment. Great career, though,” general manager Chris Ballard said.
Indeed, it has been a great career. It has been such a great career that the NFL will await Brady’s decision, which will surely spur a domino-effect series of quarterback transactions around the league.
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