The New England Patriots and Tom Brady have never gone into a season where the veteran quarterback was a lame duck, but that could change in 2019.
Brady is set to enter the season with just one year remaining on his current deal, which pays him $27 million — every bit of which counts against New England’s cap.
As pointed out by Michael Giardi of NFL Network, the Patriots would typically go straight to Brady in a cap crunch to rework his deal and offer an extension. Yet that hasn’t happened to this point, despite th fact that New England has barely enough money under the cap to sign its draft picks this year.
This has led Giardi to speculate that, perhaps, New England has finally gotten to the point with Brady where it’s going to be a year-to-year evaluation, rather than a long-term commitment.
Brady will be 42 when the 2019 season starts, so it wouldn’t be the craziest notion that the Patriots really are going to take it year by year with him going forward.
However, it’s also worth pointing out that there’s still time to make a new deal happen. It’s also worth pointing out that Patriots owner Robert Kraft has indicated recently that an extension could certainly happen.
In his age-41 season, Brady passed for 4,355 yards with 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also took the Patriots to the Super Bowl, winning his sixth career title.