Tom Brady has to be toying with us, right? There is no way the Hall of Famer and six-time champion is actually going to leave the New England Patriots after 20 years. Well, things continue to inch in that direction with each passing day. The Patriots have made it clear they want him back, but also that they will do him the service of not using the franchise tag. This basically means he will test the open market, allowing other teams to court him with offers.
Thus far the big players in this expected sweepstakes are the L.A. Chargers, Las Vegas Raiders, and Tennessee Titans. Nobody has really mentioned the Chicago Bears as a possibility. There are reasons for this. Their salary cap situation isn't great and have an offense that needs some tweaking. However, they do have an elite defense and a quarterback-friendly coaching staff. This is a big selling point to Bill Barnwell of ESPN, who predicts a scenario where Brady shock the NFL world by coming to Chicago.
"Trying to link up with the NFL's best non-Patriots defense and win one more Super Bowl, Brady signs what really amounts to a one-year, $35 million deal with voidable years attached. Allen Robinson, weeping after six years of catching passes from Blake Bortles and Mitchell Trubisky, hands Brady his No. 12 jersey at the G.O.A.T.'s unveiling."
However, to pull this off they need cap space. How do they do this?
They trade Leonard Floyd and his $13 million cap hit to the Giants.
"To free up cap room, the Bears need to move on from their former first-round pick, who has $13.2 million in unguaranteed salary left on the final year of his rookie deal. A Giants team desperate for pass-rushing help sends a late-round pick to the Bears for Floyd, whose sack total has dropped each season since a seven-sack campaign in 2016."
Where does Tom Brady arrival put Trubisky?
It's obvious this sort of monumental move spells the end of Mitch Trubisky in Chicago. The Bears could keep him as a backup option. Not a terrible idea given the quality games he's had in the past. However, Barnwell believes the team would prefer a clean break from their past. So they would end up shipping him along with a 7th round pick in exchange for Josh Rosen from the Miami Dolphins.
"With the Trubisky era coming to a close in Chicago, the Bears decline his fifth-year option and free up much-needed cap space by trading him and a seventh-round pick to the Dolphins for a cheaper backup in Rosen, who joins his third team in three years."
The Bears would then have a young understudy for Brady with high-end talent and a skill set that better fits the type of offense Matt Nagy employs. All in all, it's a logical idea that isn't impossible. Of course, it would require so many things to go right. Pace would need to be willing to shell out that much money and give up on his prized pick in Trubisky. Brady would have to really be sold on Chicago, which is hard to imagine at this point.
Still, crazy stuff always happens in the NFL.
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