The Tom Brady to Miami rumors have reignited, but a path across Florida from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Miami Dolphins would be a difficult one.
Before Tom Brady unretired, many believed that he might make yet another play to join his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers, who seemed poised to trade away Jimmy Garoppolo, seemed like an obvious choice for Brady — especially since that’s rumored to be the team who chose “that motherf*****.”
But then Brady rejoined the NFL officially in an Instagram post and made it clear he’s coming back with the Bucs, which theoretically should have ended the offseason whispers. It didn’t. Now, there are recent reports that Brady is interested in moving across the state to join the Miami Dolphins, who have spent the offseason revamping their organization in a much-needed rebrand.
Ironically, the rumor of Brady heading “a little further south” came out of Boston, where several sports reporters indicated that Brady could leave the Bucs the way he left the Patriots.
Arnold is the one who broke the Tom Brady to Tampa story, which lended credibility to his report. However, other NFL reporters like Jeff Howe and Ian Rapoport challenged Arnold’s claim with one major discrepancy: if Tom Brady is moving to Miami, why is he busy recruiting players to join the Bucs roster?
Still, if Brady does manage an unlikely path to Miami, there are a few conditions needed to facilitate a trade.
The unlikely path Tom Brady could take if he were to become a Miami Dolphin
Funnily enough, this isn’t the first time this offseason the Tom Brady to Miami rumor has popped up. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk reported that the Dolphins were interested in joining Tom Brady and Sean Payton in Miami before the Brian Flores lawsuit, although Dolphins GM Chris Grier only confirmed the pursuit of Payton and said there were “no conversations” about Brady.
If Brady does have Miami on his mind, especially after purchasing land on Miami’s exclusive Indian Creek Island, he would need to sign off on a trade and work to negotiate terms between Buccaneers management and the Dolphins front office.
Pending Tom’s approval of the terms, the deal would then need to be approved by the Buccaneers, who have expressed no desire to see Brady play for another team. Bucs general manager Jason Licht did admit that there was “friction” between Brady and Arians, but then insisted that Brady has “loved” Tampa Bay. Even if Brady and Arians clashed, Arians confronted the possibility of Brady leaving directly, aptly calling it “bad business.”
Considering the way Brady alone affected their Super Bowl odds, it would be self-destructive if the Bucs were to trade Brady to Miami. It’s hard to imagine what any team could possibly offer to have the Bucs change their mind, and the Dolphins have their hands full with trying to accommodate Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins would need to offer a haul to land Brady if he and the Bucs were indeed interested.
Then there’s the fact that the Dolphins are clearly committed to developing Tua Tagovailoa. Admittedly, Tagovailoa has had a rough two seasons in Miami, although there were many factors that contributed to the team’s struggles, including a dilapidated offensive line and conservative offense. Now, the Dolphins have signaled they’re ready to entrust the keys to Tua, signing Terron Armstead and trading for Tyreek Hill. Getting a season of Brady simply doesn’t make sense unless they wanted to sell out their future for a Super Bowl.
All things considered, Brady is more likely to stay and improve the Bucs than leave for his third team in two years. But if Brady does go to Miami, then FanSided’s Patrick Schmidt is going to be mailing out a lot of turquoise TB12 jerseys.