After the veteran Tom Brady announced he was “retiring for good” after 23 seasons, many sports fans are wondering who is the Buccaneers’ next quarterback—because they are some BIG shoes to fill, even though his best football was played at the Patriots.
Brady called it quits playing NFL on February 1, 2023. In a teary announcement, Brady said: “I know the process was a pretty big deal last time, so when I woke up this morning I figured I’d just press record, and let you guys know first,” Tom filmed his retirement speech on a beach. “It won’t be long-winded, you only get one super-emotional retirement essay and I used mine up last year, so. I…really thank you, guys, so much to every single one of you, for supporting me, my family, my friends, teammates, my competitors. I could go on forever. There’s too many. Thank you guys for allowing me to live my absolute dream. I wouldn’t change a thing. Love you all.” It will be very difficult to find a replacement for Brady, who’s widely regarded as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time, in case you’re ignorant of that acronym), but here are the top five QBs that could take over the mantle and become the Buccaneers’ next quarterback after Tom Brady.
Who is the Buccaneers’ next quarterback after Tom Brady?
Who is the Buccaneers’ next quarterback? Now that Tom Brady has retired, Tampa Bay has the huge job of finding a new QB and who that will be, at the moment, is the million-dollar question.
Getty Images
Currently, the Bucs only have one quarterback under contract, and that’s Florida Gators alum Kyle Trask but he’s only been active for one game—in a 2022 loss against the Atlanta Falcons—since being picked up by Tampa Bay in 2021 in round two of the NFL draft. The team could opt for a more veteran name—Green Bay Packers star Aaron Rodgers and longtime Las Vegas Raiders’ QB Derek Carr are both on the trading block. But compensation for both will be significant and Tampa Bay might not have the cash.
“The Buccaneers radically changed their approach to salary cap management after signing Brady to a fully guaranteed two-year, $50 million contract worth a maximum of $59 million with incentives as an unrestricted free agent in March 2020,” wrote former sports agent and salary cap expert Joel Corry for CBS Sports on how Brady’s retirement could impact Tampa Bay financially. “Win-now mode personnel moves were constantly made with little regard to long-range planning. Salary cap obligations were consistently pushed into the future through a series of contract restructures with multiple players, including Brady.”
He continued: “The Buccaneers will have $35.104 million of dead money, a salary cap charge for a player no longer on the roster… The dead money would consist of $12 million in 2021 roster bonus proration (2023 through 2025), $12 million in signing bonus proration (2023 through 2025) and $11.104 million in 2022 roster bonus proration (2023 through 2026).”
Other potential free agents that could find homes at the Bucs are San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo, the Dolphins’ backup Teddy Bridgewater, the Cleveland Browns’ Jacoby Brissett or the Seahawks’ Geno Smith, who are all out-of-contract at the end of the 2023 season. With regards to Garoppolo specifically, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said during a press conference he didn’t see “any scenario” for the injury-prone QB returning for the 2023 season. Tampa is not the only team looking for a quarterback, however.
The Bucs will also welcome a new offensive coordinator and at the time of Brady’s retirement announcement, they were conducting interviews with University of Georgia Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Todd Monken and Ronald Curry, who is the Saints’ passing game coordinator and QBs coach, among others.
Derek Carr. Getty Images
Brady is retiring as one of the greatest NFL players of all time. He’s a seven-time Super Bowl winner who sees out his 23-season career with 89,214 passing yards and 649 touchdown passes. But his journey has been a rocky one of late. Brady actually retired in 2022, but unretired about 40 days later. It’s been speculated his decision to return to the football field was a cause of strain in his marriage to supermodel Gisele Bündchen, with whom he shares two kids: Benjamin Rein, born 2009, and Vivian Lake, born 2012. The former quarterback also has one child with ex-Bridget Moynihan: John “Jack” Edward, born 2007, for whom Gisele acts as a stepmom.
Brady announced his first decision to retire from the NFL in February 2022 but retracted the statement in April 2022. “These past two months I’ve realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands. That time will come. But it’s not now,” he tweeted. “I love my teammates, and I love my supportive family. They make it all possible. I’m coming back for my 23rd season in Tampa. Unfinished business LFG.” Bündchen reacted to the news in the previous year during his initial retirement. “What a ride my love!” she wrote at the time, calling her husband “the most dedicated, focused and mentally tough person I have ever met.”
She continued that he “never once complained over the years about all the bruises and aches and pains. You just kept focusing on your goal to go out there and be the best leader there was to all your teammates.” “There is nothing you can’t achieve. I have always been here for you, you know that, and I’m as excited as you are for what the future holds!” she added at the time, before concluding, “Words can’t really express how grateful I am to everyone who has been so supportive of my husband and our family for so many years.”
A source also told People in September 2022 that Bündchen was “frustrated” with Brady and “has been spending time away from” him. “Going back to Tampa after the retirement put a strain on the personal side of his life,” the source said. “Gisele is frustrated and sick of his career coming before their family, who has always supported him.” The magazine also reported that Brady and Bündchen spending time apart from each other “has happened before” and that the two are “trying” to make their relationship work. “There is a point Gisele believes that enough is enough,” a second source said. “[She has] always been an amazing wife, totally supporting Tom and his career and bringing the kids aboard.”
Before his retirement, Brady signed the most lucrative deal in sports broadcasting history, joining Fox Sports for $375 million over 10 years, to be a lead NFL analyst on-air. “We are pleased to announce that immediately following his playing career, 7-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady will be joining us at @foxsports as our lead analyst,” said Lachlan Murdoch via Fox Sports’ Twitter. “Over the course of this long-term agreement, Tom will not only call our biggest NFL games with Kevin Burkhardt but will also serve as an ambassador for us, particularly with respect to client and promotional initiatives. We are delighted that Tom has committed to joining the Fox team and wish him all the best during this upcoming season.”
“They approached me after the season. And there’s a lot of history that I have with Fox,” Brady told Variety in July 2022 about the deal with Fox Sports. “I spoke with their executives, and I really had to evaluate if that’s what I wanted to commit to. I have a very unique perspective on football and how it should be played, and what good plays look like and what bad plays look like. I feel like I can still have a great impact on the game. I could stay in the game, doing what I love to do, talking about this incredible sport.”
Image: Simon & Schuster.
For more about Tom Brady, read his book, The TB12 Method. The New York Times bestseller, which has been described as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers player’s “athlete’s bible,” takes readers through Brady’s revolutionary training, conditioning and wellness system that kept him at the top of the NFL for more than two decades. The book dives into Brady’s TB12 Method, a performance lifestyle brand he co-founded in 2013, that focuses on a more natural, healthier way of exercising, training and living and how to maintain one’s own peak performance while decreasing injury risks.
Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.
