So, with Tom Brady not returning to New England — and not deciding where he’s going to play in 2020 today — we might as well ask: What would it take for him to come to the Bears?
Ever see Celtic Pride? Maybe something like that.
Sorry to dash your hopes, if you were in the camp that the Bears should try to get Brady now that he's officially a free agent. It's not happening.
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There’s a reason why the Bears have never been connected to Brady outside of the “well, they need a quarterback!” speculation from some national folks. Actually, two reasons, the first being: Why would Brady want to come to Chicago?
The Bears’ offense was awful last year, and we don’t need to re-litigate the across-the-board failures of that group in this space. Why Brady would want to play out the twilight of his Hall of Fame, greatest-of-all-time career for a team that didn’t have any offensive juice in 2019?
If part of Brady’s departure from New England was due to a sub-optimal set of offensive weapons there, it’s not like the Bears can offer him much more outside of Allen Robinson. The Chargers can offer Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and Austin Ekeler; the Bucs can offer Mike Evans and Chris Godwin (Bruce Arians knows a thing or two about passing offense, too).
The Bears also don’t have $30 million in cap space just lying around to allocate to Brady while still needing to address holes at right guard, cornerback and safety. Cap space can be easily created, sure, but if Teddy Bridgewater costs $7-9 million less in 2020 than Brady, that’s enough cash to fill at least one, maybe two holes on this roster.
NFL
Also, wanna know a secret truth? Take a look at this blind comparison:
QB A: 60.8 completion percentage, 6.6 yards/attempt, 88.0 passer rating
QB B: 63.2 completion percentage, 6.1 yards/attempt, 83.0 passer rating
The two quarterbacks listed above are Tom Brady and Mitch Trubisky, but I'm not going to tell you which is which yet. Brady is the GOAT (legitimately, and we’re not over-using that extremely over-used term), but I’m not totally convinced the Bears would be a better team in 2020 with Brady and $21 million less in cap space than just keeping Trubisky and using that money to upgrade the rest of the roster.
Seriously.
(Also, QB A is Brady, QB B is Trubisky)
Anyways, we’ve meandered off track a bit. Here’s what it would take for the Bears to get Brady: They’d have to cut Leonard Floyd, restructure a few contracts (like Khalil Mack’s), make a late and last-ditch plea to Brady’s camp about the upside of Nagy’s offense, convince themselves he’s worth the extra money instead of other available guys, probably offer him more money than the Bucs or Chargers will and then maybe even more money to sweeten the deal.
It’s fun to think about Brady finishing his career in Chicago, sure. But his impact on the Bears’ quarterback search will be indirect, not direct.