Explaining how Buccaneers will rework Tom Brady’s contract after retirement
Seven-time Super Bowl-winning and future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Tom Brady announced his retirement this morning, on February 1st, 2023.
The GOAT retired after contemplating coming back for a 24th season in 2023, but is stepping away after he originally planned to retire last season. He announced on Twitter in a video that he is retiring for good this time.
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Truly grateful on this day. Thank you 🙏🏻❤️ https://t.co/j2s2sezvSS
Tom Brady is retiring with more Super Bowl victories (7) than any franchise, and holds nearly every important passing record such as completions, yards, touchdowns, and wins.
While Brady is set to become a free agent in 2023, the Bucs still owe him in dead cap money. However, since he is retiring, it is expected that Brady and the Bucs will agree to a restructured deal with a minimum salary of $1.165 million for the 2023 season.
This will allow the team to carry his contract at $11.9 million through June 1st, and they will be charged $24 million in 2024 for the remaining dead cap they owe.
I'd expect the #Buccaneers & Brady to agree to a restructured contract at a minimum $1.165M salary for 2023. This will allow the Bucs to carry his contract at an $11.9M cap figure through June 1st, after which they can process his retirement.
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The automatic void date on Brady's deal will also need to be moved back from its current March 15th deadline.
This maneuver allows the $35.104M of dead cap left on Brady's contract to split up into $10.776M for 2023, & $24.32M for 2024.
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While the team will still have to pay and suffer dead cap hits, it allows them some flexibility for this upcoming season as $24 million will be accounted for in 2024.
Tom Brady career-earnings: how much did the seven-time Super Bowl-winning QB make in 23 seasons?
In 23 NFL seasons, Brady earned a total of a whopping $333 million. That spans from the year of 2000 where he made just $231,000 in his rookie season to 2023 where he made $30 million in his last season.
Tom Brady's Financial Career
00: $231k
01: $372k
02: $3.8M
03: $9.1M
04: $6M
05: $12M
06: $14M
07: $12.5M
08: $8M
09: $8M
10: $16.5M
11: $19.7M
12: $12M
13: $13M
14: $19M
15: $13M
16: $14.7M
17: $15M
18: $15M
19: $23M
20: $28.3M
21: $39.4M
22: $30M
23 seasons, $333M
Despite all of his success, Tom Brady has only made over $20 million in four seasons and was paid the most in 2021 ($39.4 million).
While that is certainly a great amount of money, he will be making more in the next 10 years off the field. Before the start of last season, Brady and Fox Sports agreed to a 10-year $375 million deal to pay him as a color commentator for whenever he chooses to retire and work for them.
The $375 million he is set to earn is $42 million more than he made in 23 years as an NFL quarterback.
Tom Brady is set to earn more as a broadcaster than he did during his entire NFL career. https://t.co/3137t82oCB
It certainly pays to have a name, and if your name is Tom Brady, you're going to get paid big. He will have made $708 million playing football and talking about football, while also making more money in many other ways.