splendid splinter said:I don't know, he may have a point there. Sure, the new deal provides some immediate financial benefit to the Patriots, but it's not one that is going to impact their ability or willingness to dish out large signing bonuses to retain or attract players. They would still pay what it took to improve the team - Brady's new contract doesn't make that more or less likely (slightly less, from a cap perspective, but not significantly so). So what is Tom's motivation in giving up $24M guaranteed in exchange for $27M non-guaranteed? He signed that extension in February, before the draft. Maybe the selection of Garoppolo made him want an out in the event the Pats want to make a change. He said he'd retire if he "sucked", but what if he starts to lose his fastball but still wants to play, but the Pats want to move on? This gives them the ability to release him instead of trading him or keeping him and creating another awkward Bledsoe/Brady situation. He gets to choose where he'll play out his career, and they're off the hook for the money. They'd need to deal with a PR shitstorm which makes it a highly undesirable and unlikely move, but Barnwell isn't arguing that they plan to do this, just that the new contract benefits everyone in some way, if it ever comes to pass.
This logic really doesn't make any sense to me.
Basically, from Barnwell's perspective, the logic is this: If Brady starts sucking, and the Patriots want to move on from him and play Jimmy G instead, Brady wants to be able to get cut and become a FA rather than riding the bench behind Garappolo.
This ignores all the following:
(1) The Patriots still can't really cut Brady before 2017 due to the dead money from his signing bonus. If he was concerned about that year, he could have just killed the guarantee for 2017, not 2015-16,
(2) Brady is an intensely competitive guy coming off a great season. Do we really think he's worried about being beaten out of a job by Jimmy G in the next couple years?
(3) Brady is on record as saying that he'll play until he sucks. If he does experience a dramatic performance decline, do we really think he wants to go to another franchise?