End Of An Era

Twenty years is a hell of a run to have. For the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, they had that. Six Super Bowl wins in nine big game appearances is a pretty good run, for any sport. After a long, successful run together, Brady and the Patriots are no longer a thing. Brady announced this morning that he will be leaving New England and hitting the free agency market.

Here is Brady's goodbye to New England, from his Twitter page:

A class act from a class act. It was a classy way to say goodbye to New England, as it has been clear for a while now that Brady wasn't going to be coming back to the Patriots.

But look at all he's done as a starting QB for the Patriots. 219 wins in 238 starts in the regular season. Won six Super Bowls, and was MVP of four of those games. He's won three regular season MVP's and been to 14 pro bowls in New England. While donning a Patriots jersey he threw for 74,571 yards, 541 touchdowns and 179 interceptions. There's little doubt to anybody who'/s ever watched football that Brady is the greatest player of this, or maybe even any, generation.

Now there's two questions that come to mind. Who takes over under center in New England? And where does Brady go?

Lets start with the Patriots. I've heard three names really thrown around. Andy Dalton, Philip Rivers and Teddy Bridgewater as a possible replacement. Not too crazy about trading for Dalton because he's a turnover machine. Rivers I think is the same age as Brady so why give up one guy for another of the same age. Best bet, and probably best fit, would be Bridgewater. He's the youngest of the bunch and look what he did with the Saints last year when Drew Brees went down with injury. Bridgewater kept the Saints in the race and right where they needed to be all year.

As far as where Brady ends up, it all depends on what he wants to do. He could go home to the West Coast, play for the Chargers and just play out the last couple of years he's got left, if that. But if he wants another shot at a title, the best bet would be Tampa Bay. Lets face it, he's probably not going to get another shot if he stays in the AFC, not with how good both the Ravens are and with how up and coming the West is in the AFC. At least if he goes to Tampa, the only major threat is the 49ers. And with the weapons of Mike Evans and Chris Goodwin in Tampa, who knows how far they could possibly go with Brady under center.

Again this is all speculation and there's know way of really knowing what the Patriots and Brady are going to do now that they're apart from eachother. Only time will tell.