How Tom Brady’s previous contract negotiations played out
His future with the Patriots is uncertain.
As Tom Brady has made it clear he plans to play in the NFL next year, and retirement appears less and less likely, everyone seems to have an opinion on his future.
Brady has until March 17 to sign an extension with the Patriots. If he doesn’t, he’ll become a free agent and could end up joining another team.
The deal he agreed to with the Patriots in August includes a provision that does not allow New England to franchise or transition tag him for the 2020 season. As Ian Rapoport notes, “the final two years automatically void on the last day of the 2019 league year, but he cannot be tagged.”
He can start negotiating with other teams on March 18 if he and the Patriots don’t reach a happy medium before then.
Here’s how his previous contract negotiations played out:
June 24, 2000
Brady signed a three-year, $866,500 contract with the Patriots after getting drafted in the sixth round earlier in the year. He started the 2001 season as Drew Bledsoe’s backup, and you know the rest.
Aug. 28, 2002
Shortly before the 2002 season, he agreed to a four-year contract extension through the 2006 season worth roughly $30 million, including a $10 million signing bonus.
That $10 million was broken down into $4 million at the time and $6 million the following March. Brady still had a base salary of $375,000 for 2002, and his salary cap value for that season was just under $1.2 million.
He could have been a restricted free agent after the upcoming season at the time, but talks reportedly intensified with his agent, Don Yee, earlier that week and the two sides reached a mutually beneficial agreement.
“The Patriots did some so-called ‘simple’ restructurings of few veterans, converting base salary into signing bonuses, to create the cap room needed for the Brady deal,” ESPN’s John Clayton and Len Pasquarelli wrote at the time.
By that point, Brady was an up-and-coming star and Super Bowl MVP, but he wasn’t yet considered a definitive superstar.
May 8, 2005
As an established superstar in 2005, Brady signed a six-year contract worth $60 million.
The contract, as ESPN noted, replaced the two years he had remaining on his previous deal. Under that contract, Len Pasquarelli reported, he was scheduled to earn base salaries of $5.5 million in 2005 and $6 million in 2006.
“It’s a good thing they got it done,” wide receiver Deion Branch told The Associated Press at the time. “It would be good to keep everyone together. We know he’ll be here, though.”
Patriots officials and Yee worked several months on the contract, ESPN reported. It was reported two months prior that a deal was imminent, but that the contract was reportedly not completed at the time because of issues over structure, distribution, and guarantee of bonuses.
According to documents obtained by ESPN.com, the contract included a $14.5 million signing bonus and a $12 million option bonus that was due the following spring. The base salaries were $1 million (2005), $4 million (2006), $6 million (2007), $5 million (2008), $2.3 million (2009), and $3.5 million (2010), according to ESPN. There were roster bonuses of $3 million each in the final three years of the contract.
The ESPN story read: “Brady will have a salary cap charge of $8.429 million for 2005, which is between $1.5 million and $2 million less than under his old contract. But his cap number for 2006 jumps to a prohibitive $14.423 million, meaning the contract will have to be revisited probably by converting the option bonus into a signing bonus, which can then be prorated.”
Sep. 9, 2010
Prior to the start of the 2010 season, Brady signed a four-year contract worth $72 million ($48 million guaranteed) to become the highest-paid NFL player at the time. Brady was set to be a free agent following the 2010 season and was involved in a minor car accident the morning he signed the contract.
NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran said the accident “caused Robert Kraft to consider the fragility of things and decide to get the deal done.”
According to ESPN, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King broke the news of the contract during halftime of the season-opening game between the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings.
March 22, 2012
Brady agreed to a restructuring of his contract.
“Under the original terms of the four-year contract extension he signed in 2010, which went into effect last season, Brady’s base salary for 2012 was to be $5.75 million,” Shalise Manza Young wrote. “Now, according to NFL Players’ Association documents, his base salary will be $950,000.”
The remaining $4.8 million was combined with the $6 million roster bonus Brady was set to earn on Feb. 15, 2013, and the $10.8 million total became a signing bonus that will be prorated over the final two years of the deal, Young wrote at the time.
Feb. 25, 2013
Brady, who by that point had made it clear he hoped to play into his 40s, signed a three-year, $27 million restructured extension with the Patriots.
The deal went through the 2017 season and gave the Patriots a significant amount of salary cap relief in 2013 and 2014.
According to Manza Young, Brady received a $3 million signing bonus immediately. His base salaries for the 2015, 2016, and 2017 seasons were slated to be $7 million, $8 million, and $9 million, respectively.
Dec. 29, 2014
In 2014, Brady re-framed his contract again in order to give the Patriots more flexibility in the offseason.
He restructured his 2012 salary from $5.75 million to $950,000 and converted his roster bonus to a signing bonus, clearing $7.2 million in cap space with the team.
Brady removed the “skill” guarantee in his contract, but his contract remained fully guaranteed for injury, according to NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport.
“Under the new contract, the Patriots will free up $24 million in cash flow,” NFL.com’s Dan Hanzus wrote on Dec. 29, 2014. “It does not impact the Patriots’ salary cap situation. The change means that Brady could theoretically be released in the future for performance issues, and they wouldn’t owe him any more money.”
April 25, 2016
A federal appeals court ruled in favor of the NFL in the “Deflategate” case, according to CNN, reinstating Brady’s original four-game suspension imposed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The suspension, which came without pay, caused him to forfeit $235,294 of his 2016 salary with New England.
Here’s the language from the ruling reinstating the Tom Brady suspension: pic.twitter.com/R4F27Flv5K
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) April 25, 2016
Aug. 10, 2018
As part of his reworked deal, Brady had $10 million of his $14 million base salary converted into a signing bonus, according to ESPN’s Field Yates.
Source: as part of his reworked deal, Tom Brady had $10M of his $14M base salary converted into a signing bonus. That means Brady gets $10M guaranteed now, while his cap number for this year will not increase at all as part of the new deal.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) August 11, 2018
He got $10 million guaranteed at the time, and his cap number for the year didn’t increase at all as part of the new deal. His $22 million cap number dropped by $5 million for 2018.
Aug. 4, 2019
Brady signed a two-year, $70 million contract extension with the Patriots.
The #Patriots and QB Tom Brady are in agreement on a 2-year deal worth $70M, source said, thru 2021. He gets $23M this year, then $30M and $32M in the following years — though both sides are amenable to adjusting it if the situations warrants. It’s essentially year-to-year.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 4, 2019
Rapoport, who first reported the news, noted that Brady would be paid $23 million in 2019, $30 million in 2020, and $32 million in 2021. He also highlighted that both sides were “amenable to adjusting” if necessary, which made it a year-to-year agreement.
Now it’s unclear where his future lies.
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