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Going after Tom Brady is a bad idea for the Broncos

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Jan 7, 2020, 6:29 AM | Updated: 6:30 am

Tom Brady is going to keep playing football at age 43. It appears unlikely he’ll continue to do it in New England.

This offseason, Brady will be a free agent for the first time in his storied career. Teams from around the NFL will be able to pursue the GOAT if they so choose.

The Broncos should not be one of them.

Put aside the fact the Broncos have been playing the stopgap game for too long at the quarterback position. Brock Osweiler, Case Keenum and Joe Flacco were desperate plays to somehow propel the Broncos back to their Super Bowl contending ways.

There is only one Peyton Manning. The way he ended up with the Broncos and the career resurgence he enjoyed was truly one in a million.

The Broncos have to find a young quarterback, develop that quarterback, build around that quarterback and hope he is the answer. Drew Lock appears like he could be that guy. But even the presence of Lock isn’t the only reason I’d stay away from Brady.

I don’t think he’s a great QB anymore. For 20 years, Brady excelled in making average receivers better than they really were. He won time and time again with a host of anonymous pass catchers. The only real talents he played with were Randy Moss and Rob Gronkowski. Everyone else was just a guy. Even former Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker was ordinary with the Dolphins. Then he won the NFL lottery by getting traded to New England to catch passes from Brady. Then, got to come to Denver and do the same with Manning.

So I find it amusing after two decades of lifting the guys around him that the narrative is now, “Poor Tom. He doesn’t have enough around him. He needs more weapons.”

That is true. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with that, but it points to the downward trajectory Brady is on. Here in Denver, we know it better than most. We saw what happened when Manning went downhill. It went shockingly fast. The same thing is happening with Brady.

Brady makes sense for a team for two reasons. One, a franchise feels they are right on the cusp of being really good and Brady may have one good year left in him to help get that team over the hump. The other reason is box office appeal. In a league where more and more teams are having trouble getting fans to leave the comfort of their couches to sit in the stands, Brady would provide sizzle.

Those two reasons don’t apply to the Broncos. They’re not right on the cusp. They still have lots of holes to fill and Brady at best would put them in position to win probably eight to nine games. The Broncos also don’t have a problem selling tickets with a season ticket waiting list a mile long.

Brady makes sense for a team like the Chargers. They’re talented bunch, but also an underachieving team. Brady could provide a spark. Also, with the Bolts moving into that new stadium they will share with the Rams, they need a marquee name to generate ticket sales and Brady would be a draw.

So I’ll take a hard pass on Tom Terrific, thank you. The Drew Lock era is upon us. It’s all about the future and not living in the past. Peyton worked out. It would be asking way too much to go to that well again and think it would be the same with Brady.

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Going after Tom Brady is a bad idea for the Broncos