Should New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady have been drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 2000?
In hindsight of course he should have.
It would appear that Bill Polian had his eye on Brady (sure he did), who is now a five-time Super Bowl champion.
“Tom Brady would have been a guy, and we were very high on him. Our guys really loved him, but we weren’t in the quarterback market, obviously. Those would be the guys I remember us giving solid, first-round, can-lead-you-to-a-championship grades, Polian said via Steven Ruiz of USA Today.”
When you’re supposedly that big on a potential NFL star, don’t you go for it?
Polian said the Colts were not shopping for a quarterback at that time. After all, they drafted Peyton Manning No. 1 overall in 1998. Just imagine if Brady was brought on board as Manning’s backup. What path would that have led to?
Perhaps Brady would not have played until the 2011 season when Manning went down with his neck injury. Fancy that.
Instead, he took over the starting job in New England in 2001 for Drew Bledsoe, and we all know where that led.
Regarding Polian, he was asked what quarterbacks he would have been interested in if Manning was not with the Colts. He tossed out Ben Roethlisberger, drafted at No. 11 in 2004, and Aaron Rodgers, chosen at No. 24 in 2005.
In the end, the Colts did not do a shabby job by sticking with Manning, who played 13 years in Indianapolis while leading the team postseason 11 times.