During an appearance on HBO’s The Shop: Uninterrupted, Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady discussed his reactions to a potential 2020 free agent suitor pulling out of the sweepstakes to stick with its incumbent signal-caller.
“There was a story, in free agency, one of the teams, they were interested and all of sudden they weren’t interested at the very end,” Brady said. “I was sitting there thinking, you’re sticking with that [expletive]? Are you serious?
“When I look back I’m like, there’s no [expletive] way I would’ve went to that team. But they said they didn’t want me. I know what that means, I know what that feels like.”
There’s been plenty of speculation about the mystery quarterback and team to which Brady was referring, and Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com cites multiple league sources who believe the future Hall of Famer was referring to Derek Carr and the Raiders. Las Vegas had been mentioned as a potential Brady suitor during the 2020 offseason, but the organization dropped out of the sweepstakes after balking at the QB's long list of requests. As Florio notes, Brady had his chance at payback last season, when he tossed four touchdown passes in a 45-20 Tampa Bay victory over Las Vegas.
Unless Brady unexpectedly reveals whom he was talking about, we’ll never truly know if it was the Raiders. Plenty of other teams and quarterbacks have been mentioned, including the Bears/Mitch Trubisky and the Titans/Ryan Tannehill. The 49ers and former teammate Jimmy Garoppolo have been a popular suggestion, but considering Brady’s lifelong affinity for San Francisco (and his declaration that he was never going to sign with that team in the first place), we can probably cross them off the list.
Here’s more out of the AFC West…
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