The Ringer NFL Show - Every Angle of the Tom Brady Unretirement

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly return for an emergency podcast to share their reactions to Tom Brady’s return to the NFL after a 40-day retirement. They discuss all of the fantasy, draft, and free agency ramifications of this move and much more. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly Production Assistance: Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I am joined by Danny Kelly, and we're here coming to you live. It is Sunday night because Tom Brady has unretired. Yeah. And I thought I could enjoy my selection Sunday with college basketball. No, NFL's here. Tom Brady's unretired. We're just going to give you kind of a short.

short, like just our immediate reactions from this right now. And I'm just going to kind of give you, can I just throw my immediate thoughts at you right now with just what went through my head? Give it to me. Yeah. What do you got? So at first I was pretty thrilled because the Richmond Spiders, my beloved college basketball team made the NCAA tournament. They won the Atlantic. Okay. Shout out the Richardson. I was enjoying this. Just waited 11 years to see them on the spiders Sunday. Yeah, spiders, maybe. And that didn't last very long. But I see Tom Brady unretired. And my first thought was, man, you had it. You had it made. Like he's like, what Craig was just saying the other day, like the godfather lines like every time you think

you're out, they pull you back in like he got it. He got out. Yeah. Like you have more rings than Michael Jordan. He, you have more rings than any individual NFL team in the Super Bowl era. Tom Brady is better than any individual team. And his family was there. Like, it's like the beach at the to Shawshank. Go, go to Zawatineo. Go, enjoy your life. You did it. And he's back. And I'm like, what are you chasing? Like, am I crazy? He did this right. He walked away, in my opinion, the perfect time. I kind of am, this is insane of me to say, but disappointed in a way. I thought he crushed this. What was your first reaction? I'm excited. I'm very happy that he's back. I think just bottom line, football is better when Tom Brady's back, like when he's playing. He's very good. He makes the

Buccaneers fairly much more relevant this year. They're probably going to be a Super Bowl contender. A lot has to happen between now and the season in terms of them getting free agents locked in. And they're going to attract like the mercenary type guys to come play for one year and get a title, all that stuff. We'll get to all that during the off season. But like my initial reaction was number one. That's awesome.

It's funny. It's good content. But it's also good for, I think, the sport. He's coming back to the NFC, which doesn't have very many good quarterbacks in it right now, which is I think probably part of his reasoning, I would guess, is because he goes, he's looking at the NFC and's like, we got Aaron Rogers, Dack, Stafford, and then who else? Kyler.

Kyler? I mean, I don't know. NFC balance is crazy. It's that, as you just said, it's Dak, Stafford, Kyler, Rogers. And like the fifth best quarterback before Brady came back was like, Kirk Cousins, Matt Ryan. Like who is the fifth best quarterback in the NFC?

The AFC is out here with, I mean, never mind, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson. That's just, I mean, that's the same division. You've got Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Russell Wilson. That's one division. Derek Carr. also in the division. Josh Allen.

And then like Trevor Lawrence, just the number one pick from a year ago just out there in the AFC. Like the AFC is half the quarterbacks in the AFC are really, really, really good. Yeah. And then the NFC Brady's back.

But I don't know. Obviously it's good for football Brady's back. Obviously it's good for like following the NFL. I just kind of looked at it like. So you remember he did that Facebook show back when that was a thing. It was called Tom versus Time. It was the season.

It ended up with them losing to the Eagles. I never watched it. I don't think anyone watched it, but like he did just give Deepak Chopra's son the access. He's the director. Deepak Chopra, he's referencing Kanye things. He writes books. His son did the show for Tom Brady. Okay. It's called Tom versus Time. And it's like pretty decent access to Tom's life, comparative to, you know, everything else we get. And Jousel just straight at one point, looks into the camera and says, as far as I'm concerned, football is his first love. I think about that a lot. And I think of, I thought about that today. She just has accepted this. And the idea that

Brady just, I don't know, he had what? He's hired February 1st and today's, what, this is March 13? It's been 40 days. He had a 40 day retirement. I, I know it's March 13th because wasn't, yeah, March 12th is two years today since Rudy Gabbard. We don't have to go to that. It's dark. But anyway, here's my reaction to your reaction. People like Brady who are high achieved, like incredibly high achievement. Like, he's going to be one of the greatest players in sports history ever, right? Like, you don't get to that level if you if you're just like a laid back person that wants to relax like on your offseason you know what I mean like you don't get to that level you're he's type A he doesn't know any other like way to attack life than to just like a hundred percent dive in right like look at everything he does like the TV 12 method the way he treats his body the way he prepares the way he watches tape all that stuff over the years and plus he's been doing this for like 20 something years like I feel like he's this is the only way he knows this is what he gets out of bed for in the morning and so when you when you when you all of a sudden and get that pulled out from under you and like you're you don't have anything to compete for you don't have anything to strive for on that particular day other than just like relaxing and hanging out like

that can be massive i know the word i'm the word that's coming to mind is like culture shock it's like completely different right like it's a different lifestyle i think culture shock's not a bad term i've been thinking a lot about this book set wickersham wrote which is phenomenal which is it's better to be feared and it's about brady and belichick era and then also it's the brady bellichick robert craft era really and everything that went down there and it's really good and more of the things Seth kind of explores is that Brady's kind of terrified if not playing football and that kind of drove him. Like at the end of it's all fear. And I like it's better to be fear. There's a lot of Machiavell and a lot of things at Belchick. But also Brady's afraid to not

play football and he tried it for six weeks and went back. I love that. It's so funny how quickly he turned it around. It's crazy six weeks. That was like that was like that long ago. This isn't like far where it's like two weeks before the season. He's like, fuck it, we're back. We're doing it again. Like he spent literally just over a month. month being retired. He's like, I can't do it. I got to come back. Brett Forb, they used to have helicopters flying over Hadesburg, Mississippi in July, because Sports Center had nothing else to talk about, but like midseason baseball. So, like, let's just fly a helicopter of Brett Farb's house. Brady was just like,

sure. And also, some people have been saying, Bill Simmons has been saying, like, maybe he'd come back at some point. Mike Floria, pro football talk has been, was said that like this week or last week that Brady would be the Niners starting quarterback for San Francisco. Like, week one this year. And so maybe in some sense, like we were all bamboozled. Maybe he never retired. Like Mike Florio, who is a character, was saying Brady retired from the Buccaneers. And that he just, he never said the word retire. I don't believe in that initial Instagram post in February 1st.

Very cryptic. Yeah. And like, he basically maybe he looked at the Tampa Bay situation. It's like, you know what? This team is bad for me. The cap situation sucks. I want out. Maybe you'll go to San Francisco.

Maybe there's some larger picture here. And he tried to shop around in retirement and force the buck's hand and be like, look, I kind of raised your franchise value by roughly a billion dollars, basically between him signing and with them winning the superiors. the franchise value the bucks went up like roughly 30 percent and he's like just release me and let me go like you're welcome i know i think that's going to be one of those theories is like maybe he tried to do the thing where it's like oh it's a wink wink nod nod i just want to go somewhere else you guys will do the right thing and let me go and bruce arian's is like nah run it back run it back at the

the combine i think erins was like no we're not we're not going to trade him if he if he's coming back it's for us i don't know i'm paraphrasing i can't remember exactly what he said but he was basically like shut the door on the idea of like trading Brady. Dude, Bruce Ariens, the head coach for the Bucks and Jason Light, the GM, when they were talking about, you know, we're leaving the door open for Brady, we're leaving the light on whatever they said. Yeah. I kind of thought in the back of head, man, that's pretty desperate.

Like, dude, they're not coming back for you. And I'm like, wow. Turns out. They came back. Yeah. No, so I think like my initial reaction, like I said, was super excited. I think it's good for football. I think it's fun.

Obviously, big time fantasy implications like Chris Godwin, Mike Evans. What does this mean for like? Is Four Nett going to come back and play for the Buccaneers? again because Fournett was kind of Tom Brady's guy last year in terms of the running back group. So that's going to be interesting. Well, so wait, Rob Gronk. It's more than just Fornett.

Rob Gronkowski. Gronk. Yeah, sorry. Forget about Grom. Does he come back? I think he's back. Never mind that they just franchise tag Godwin. Not to mention, I mean, you got to realize Brady back, this is now half the buck's

offense we're talking about because Brady is number one, Fournet, Gronk. They also had one of their guards, Alex Kappa. Their other guard, Ali Marpet retired. He's not even 30 yet. And then you also have Ryan Jensen, who's the center for the Bucks is hitting free agency. And it's like, dude, all of these guys are going to think twice about playing Brady again. Like, everyone is going to think twice about, do you want X percent more money or do I want to try to win another Super Bowl ring with Tom Brady? That is half of Tampa Bay's offense.

That's what is that? Five of 11 players. Then there's the defense that's Jason Pierre Paul, Dama Kung Su, Carlton Davis. I think Jordan White had the safety. Carlton Davis is a quarterback. Jordan White's the safety. Those guys are probably going to think. twice. Do I want to come back? Like, this is a huge deal for whether Tampa can retain talent.

So I don't know. It's a lot of dominoes. There's no coincidence when Brady is doing this, right? Like, it's, there's a few hours here until the legal tampering period opens up. He obviously is thinking ahead and being like, look, if I'm going to come back, I want this team to be as good as possible. I'm going to announce it. This is going to get all the guys that are hitting free agency to think twice like you're saying in terms of like, what do I want to achieve in 2022? Do I want the most money possible, which some guys will definitely want because look, you only get one career and you got to maximize the money, you know, it's is a very difficult, a tough sport that you never really know, like, how, when you're going to end your career. And they won the ring with Brady once.

Like, it's not, the gap between I've never won a Super Bowl and Tom Brady wants to win a ring with me is not as big as, well, I've won one ring with Brady. Do I want to win a second? It's like, well, you got your ring, maybe now you get your money. Like, it's not the same appeal. Obviously, the Buccaneers have a lot of holes in their roster right now, and there's a lot of free agents. I'm generally not that worried. I think that they will find ways to fill those holes and find guys that exactly like he were saying, like mercenaries that want to come and play for one year, you're going to get the guys that are going to want to do the prove-it season with the Bucks because, you know, they're going to be a good team. There's a lot of good players around them.

Obviously, if you're going to come in and play with Tom Brady on offense, you're going to look better. So I don't think they're going to have that big of a problem, you know, filling some of the gaps in terms of what their roster really needs right now, especially in that division, which is just like kind of a mess right now. This is not, this is just pure speculation, but I'm just throwing out some of the top free agents out there. I know the Bucks Caps situation is very difficult. Yeah, they're over the cap currently. Well, they'll figure it out. The cap's a mess, but I'm just saying there are certain very good free agents out there that could fill some holes.

Like they have Brandon Shurf from the Guard from Washington. There's Toronto officers from the Saints. There are guys who have, look, could make dozens of billion dollars, but also have not won Super Bowls. And you never know what, maybe they might look and be like, you know what, I want to play with Tom Brady. I'm not saying that will happen. But you don't know what motivates certain people. And like someone's going to want to play with Tom Brady. So it's crazy.

And it does affect. You know, those guys could go somewhere else, and instead they might go to Tampa Bay. So that's crazy. And then as you were saying, also fantasy-wise, I mean, Godwin and Gronk. I mean, it changes everything about Godwin and Evans. Like, number one, Godwin's coming back from an ACL injury. So that's going to be something that we have to monitor in terms of like when he can get back on the field. But Evans, I think, was going to fall dramatically in terms of ADP this off-season.

That I think will, this will stop him from falling. It'll probably end up being right around where he was last year. He doesn't have to worry about Antonio Brown eating into some of his. target rate this year too and that could potentially boost him up even more. So I think fantasy-wise, you got two good receivers here that opens things up. I think Brady led to let NFL in yards last year. He did. He was second MVP voting. And that's kind of coming back to like why he's doing this. Part of me is just like, you know what, look, he said he would retire when he sucked. And last year, he didn't suck. He was second MVP voting. You said this so many times and I kind of brushed it off.

I should have listened more because that is an amazing point. Like he really, he really, just, I'm guessing that's a huge part of why he's coming by. He's like, look, I can still play, man. Like, I'm still really good. Yeah. And also, and also, he always said 45, and I do think 45 was a somewhat arbitrary goal. It was kind of like, that seems impossible. Let me try. It's a nice round number. And then he got to 44. And part of me is like, well, maybe he's just wondering, wow, I got to 44 and was second of VP voting. I always said 45, why am I stopping now? Because now he's probably wondering, can I do 50? I really think at this point it's kind of just this tug of war between him and his family life. I don't know.

Who knows? But again, imagine just throwing out 45, what, eight, nine years ago, and then you get to 44 and you're second in MVP voting and you're going to stop. Did he say it? He said it that long ago? I think it was 2014. I mean, the messed up part is 2014 was seven years ago. Was it not eight years ago? That's the problem. But it also reminds me, Wright Thompson, who's this amazing writer at ESPN, covered Michael Jordan. And he wrote a great profile of Michael Jordan when Michael Jordan turned 50. And I think Sports Illustrated. Finagle it so that Michael Jordan's 50th cover of Sports Illustrated was for Michael Jordan's 50th birthday.

And they actually released a tiny, back when magazines mattered, like physical ones, an actual issue just of Michael Jordan's stories from Sports Illustrated. And the cover was Michael Jordan at 50. And Wright Thompson wrote this incredible thing about how Michael Jordan just desperately wants to be 218 pounds because that's what his playing weight was. And it was about how Michael Jordan cannot accept he cannot get back to 28. but really it was because Michael Jordan cannot accept that he's done with basketball. Michael Jordan at 50 still thinks he could be in the NBA.

And I was also thinking about that today with Brady, where it's like the mentality it takes you to get to that level just kills you as you age because it's this indefatigable belief in self. It just does not groove with the idea of aging and giving up on things. But eventually you do. Look, how long did Jordan go from retiring? I mean, never mind the mid-bowls retire, but going from Bulls to Wizards,

It was multiple, like many years. Brady didn't make it two months. 40 days. 40 days. I mean, it's basically, isn't that, in Judaism, that's where you get to drop the Torah. He wandered the desert, yeah. He wandered the desert for 40 days. Greg Rosenthal had a great tweet.

He's like, Brady watched his own funeral and he didn't like it one bit. It's true, though. We all eulogized him. Like, obviously, like, the whole early announcement of his retirement, the saga where he, like, was like, I'm not retiring. And then three days later he was retiring. Do you think that Brady just dropped the football tour? Do you think that's what happened here? He what?

No, it's a Judaism joke. Any Jews listening will get that, but if not. Anyway, the draft. So the Buccaneers obviously have a later pick in this year's draft, and we were kind of thinking they would look quarterback, maybe, possibly. So they got the 27th pick. Yeah. So before it was like in range that they could go quarterback. We weren't sure because they were looking at veterans or whatever, blah, blah, blah.

But like, now, if Brady's back, you have to think that they kind of go plug and play guy you can contribute this year, just like they draft Tristan Worf's to be their starting tackle and protect Brady's mindset for Super Bowl run. DK, you have your mock draft. NFLdraft. Dot the ringer.com. You have your draft guide. It's phenomenal.

Please check it out. NFL draft. The ringer.com. shameless plug. You gave them Kenyon Green from Texas A&M. This still makes a lot of sense, I feel like. Yeah. Does Brady coming back change your calculus about that?

No. I mean, I think so, yeah, the biggest holes I would say on the russar right now before free agency are offensive line and then they probably got to get either pass rushers or secondary. like cornerbacks. So I think it would make a ton of sense for them to adjust the offensive line because like keeping Brady upright is the most important thing that they can do this year. And, you know, there's going to be a lot of pretty good offensive linemen in that range,

honestly. So I think that they have a really good option here like Zion Johnson out of Boston College, Kenyon Green from Texas A&M. There's a couple of tackles that are going to be still there likely, you know, in that 27 area. And the other thing is there's good edge rushers in this class. So there is a chance that they're going to have a plug-in play, not starter necessarily, the rotational guy that can come in and rush to passer pin his ears back the bucket ears dude

they're going to do it again like they're going to actually be well set up here to draft a guy on on day one that could come in and play at one of those key positions i don't know if it'll be offensive line corner or pass rusher but those would be the three that i would look at um for them to do right away because that's like high impact year one thing right like and that's what they got with worse he was an all pro i believe his first year and i'm not saying they're going to get a caliber of a player as worths at this spot they probably won't but they'll i do think they have an opportunity here with the way that this class sets up with pass rushers and offensive linemen both being pretty deep groups um that they could get a starter so i'm sure that was baked into the calculus

for brady a little bit probably not a big part of it but like he knows that they can kind of like make some moves here and shore up the roster before they before the season starts it's not just worse you know the year that brady went to the bucks they also drafted antoine winfield junior in the second round that he picked off Patrick Holmes in the Super Bowl. Like, that's kind of why I never thought Aaron Rogers was going to get traded because I'm like, if you, Rogers, you got limited years left. Let's, I mean, hypothetically, you know, back in the day, we thought Rogers was going to go to Denver.

And I kind of was like, if you're Rogers and you're hitting free agency in the spring of 2023, why do you want Denver to trade two firsts and two seconds for you when you could go to Denver a year for now and play with those people? And obviously they ended up trading those picks for Russell. With the guys that they're adding for those picks. Yeah, but Russell wasn't hitting free agency next year. And that's kind of where Brady is the same thing, where it's like, you want to play with the guys. So anyway, I think you're right.

I think that heading a garlet, Kenyon Green makes a ton of sense for Tampa Bay. Obviously, it takes Tampa Bay out of the trade market for a quarterback. And there's a lot of implications that are probably not ticking, you know, Kenny Pickett or at a pit or someone at quarterback. But I think this is crazy. Thank God we're not entering the Kyle Trask era. Yeah, no one, no one needs Kyle Trask to play quarterback for the Buccaneers. But this is crazy. And at the end of the day, I mean.

Who's the other backup they had last year? I can't remember his name. Oh, it's Blaine Gabbard, is it? Blaine Gabbard, yes. Bruce Ariens try to say with a straight face that Blaine Gabbard was going to play quarterback for the... Thank God. All right. I'm sure we're going to learn more about this as, you know, we got through the day, the week, the year.

We're going to learn more about what the hell just happened, why it happened. But we wanted to give you our immediate thoughts. So I'm Danny Hyfitz. This is Danny Kelly. We were not able to have Ben Sulk or Craig Rollback. But check out the NFL draft show. It's free agency this week. It's a Sunday evening.

They're doing stuff. Yeah, they're busy. They have things. They have lives. We don't. So, you know, that's where we're here for you. So we got still have episodes coming for you with this week in the NFL draft show. We have free agency recaps.

We have all that jazz coming for you. So please stick around. And then yeah, we, I mean, check out the ringer.com. Great website. And of course, NFL draft. com. DK's draft guide. DK's mock draft.

Everything you want to know about all the important prospects, everything you got. We got stuff coming for you. That is the best draft guide in the business. So yeah, I think that's all we got. Thank you, DK. Thank you, Chris, for producing this episode on zero notice. Just out of the ether. Thank you, Chris.

And then, of course, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Simon and Garfunkel. I don't know why. Yeah, sure, okay. That makes no sense. I was trying to think of a Tom Brady-related band, but I couldn't come up with anything. Did you think of them because they're old?

Yeah, because he's not that old. I don't know why I thought of it. Probably could go old. All right, goodbye, everyone.