Despite the various flaws in the ultimately fake report from Ron Borges of the Boston Herald about Patriots quarterback Tom Brady‘s desire for a new contract, Brady should want one — and he should get one.
Brady has two years left on his current deal, at salaries of $14 million in 2018 and $14 million in 2019. These two extras years were added primarily to allow for proration of the $28 million signing bonus that Brady received two years ago, when executing his latest extension.
With the trades of Jacoby Brissett and Jimmy Garoppolo, the Patriots obviously intend to keep Brady around. Surely, they won’t be doing so at base salaries roughly half of the $27.5 million annual rate Garoppolo will now receive in San Francisco.
Brady’s bonus currently counts $7 million under the cap this year and next year. Another signing bonus of, for example, $40 million on a new four-year deal with a base salary of $1 million in 2018 would move his cap charge to $18 million.
The salaries for 2019, 2020, and 2021 would also need to be negotiated, and the Patriots would presumably be required to make a wink/nod commitment that they won’t seek to recover unallocated bonus money if he retires before the new four-year contract ends.
Regardless, a new deal for Brady is needed, and a new deal for Brady is likely. With a signing bonus of $40 million, he’d coincidentally get the same kind of “up-front” money that Garoppolo will receive under his deal with the 49ers, which pays out $42 million in 2018. Brady, under the example set forth above, would get $41 million.
So, basically, Fake Don Yee may end up being inadvertently right on the money regarding the money that Brady will get.