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Tom Brady is the greatest football player of all time. The NFL GOAT racked up 89,214 yards, 7,752 completions, and 649 touchdowns through the air during the course of his lengthy NFL career, all of which rank number one in league history. More importantly than all of the big numbers he put up, he won seven championships, which is a feat that may never be matched again.
Of course, most of the three-time MVP's success came during his 20 years with the New England Patriots. Few would have guessed that the Michigan product would have so much success once leaving the team. At age 43, Brady shockingly left the Patriots and signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent. His final championship was won as a member of the Buccaneers, and a number of other memorable moments occurred in Tampa Bay, too, but none of it almost happened.
During his newest venture as a broadcaster, Tom Brady revealed that it almost wasn't the Buccaneers that he signed with in 2020, but instead the Chicago Bears. Brady claims that the Bears pursued the quarterback to finish out his career with them, which has us wondering, what would have happened if Tom Brady signed in Chicago rather than in Tampa Bay? In this article, we are going to look at what would have been different in the football world as we know it if that hypothetical were reality.
What would have happened with the Buccaneers if Tom Brady didn't sign?
Before looking at how a Tom Brady acquisition would have affected the Bears, let's take a look at how a lack of Brady would have changed the Buccaneers' fate. Without the quarterback who spent three seasons in Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers would be down 14,643 yards and 108 touchdowns.
Brady led the Buccaneers to a 32-18 record during his time with the team, which included trips to every postseason. In his first year with the team, Brady led the Buccaneers to championship glory. In year two, he led the league in almost every statistical passing category, and while year three wasn't as dominant, Brady was still an elite gunslinger during his final year in the NFL.
Without Brady, you can all but assure that the Buccaneers would not have been a playoff team. They missed the postseason in each of the 12 seasons prior to Brady's arrival, and they were commonly viewed as one of the league's bottom dwellers.
Jameis Winston was the quarterback who Brady took over for. The former number-one overall pick was the ultimate gunslinger during his time with the Buccaneers. Winston put up big statistical numbers due to his rocket arm, but a low football IQ led to a lot of turnovers and a lack of winning. Winston could heave the ball down the field, and while that often led to pick plays, it just as frequently led to detrimental plays.
Heading into the 2020 offseason, though, Winston was a free agent. The 2015 first-overall pick was dealing with a recovery from a torn meniscus, LASIK surgery, and a broken thumb. The signal-caller was beaten up, and he never found the success in Tampa Bay that the Buccaneers wanted. Because of that, Tampa Bay likely wouldn't have re-signed him, even if Brady never joined the team. The franchise tag wasn't an option, as they instead used it on reigning sack leader Shaquil Barrett, and a long-term contract (which is the going rate for most quarterbacks) didn't make much sense considering Winston's lack of winning.
Potential draft replacements for the Buccaneers without Tom Brady
With Brady signing elsewhere and Winston being an unlikely candidate to return, the Buccaneers may have looked in the draft to find their next quarterback. The 2020 NFL Draft was one of the most stacked draft classes in recent memory, especially at the quarterback position. Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, and Justin Herbert were all drafted in the top 10 of that class, but the Buccaneers didn't pick until pick 13.
There, they selected Tristan Wirfs, which turned out to be a great pick. The tackle has since become one of the best offensive linemen in the league. The NFL is a quarterback-needy league, though, so you have to assume the Buccaneers would have passed on Wirfs and made a play for a signal-caller.
Trading up for one of those three top 10 quarterbacks would have been on the table, and considering how impressive they've looked in their young careers, a move up for Burrow, Tagovailoa, or Herbert would have been a good move. They all landed with quarterback needy teams, though, so drafting one of the other signal callers in the class would have been more likely. Jordan Love wasn't selected until pick number 26, and Jalen Hurts wasn't drafted until the 53rd pick.
Either one of them would have been a good pick, as Love and Hurts have established themselves as franchise quarterbacks, too. However, the Buccaneers likely wouldn't have gotten the immediate results that they got with Brady if a rookie was under center. Love spent three years as a backup with the Green Bay Packers before he was handed the reins to their offense, and although Hurts has been elite with the Philadelphia Eagles, a lot of scouts were skeptical about his ability as a passer coming out of college.
Perhaps Hurts could have worked out in Tampa Bay, but he does seem tailor-made for the Eagles system that focuses on his strengths. The Eagles quarterback even sat for the majority of his rookie season, too.
Potential free-agent replacements for the Buccaneers without Tom Brady
It is also possible that the Buccaneers would have still opted to go the free-agent route to find their new quarterback in 2020, even if Brady wasn't that free agent. They obviously weren't scared off by signing an aging veteran gunslinger, and there were a number of other older quarterbacks on the open market during the 2020 offseason.
While it would have been unlikely that the Buccaneers could have lured 2020 free agent Drew Brees away from the New Orleans Saints, Cam Newton, Philip Rivers, Joe Flacco, and Teddy Bridgewater were all free agents and all signed with new teams that offseason. While all four were past their primes, they all would have brought a veteran presence to the team that would be lacking without Brady's arrival in Tampa Bay.
Additionally, Brady wouldn't be the only player who would have never become a Buccaneer had the signal caller signed with the Bears. Brady's arrival in Tampa Bay allowed for the recruitment of a number of big-name veteran players, many of whom were Brady teammates in New England.
Brady wanted his favorite target in New England to join him in Tampa Bay, so the Buccaneers traded for tight end Rob Gronkowski. Brady's star power was also enough to persuade a number of other offensive stars to join the team, including Antonio Brown, Leonard Fournette, and LeSean McCoy. Without Brady, none of them would have likely ended up in Tampa Bay. That means a good chunk of a championship core would have never existed, so in all likelihood, the Buccaneers would have continued performing as a non-playoff team for the years to come.
The state of the 2020 Bears
Brady's original deal with the Buccaneers was for $50 million over two years. That is a very reasonable contract for an elite quarterback. The future Hall of Famer claimed that the Bears were stealthy in their recruitment of him, and had he opted to join the Bears instead of the Buccaneers, you could assume that his contract would be comparable to the one he signed in Tampa Bay.
That means the Bears would have had some spending power, and you could imagine the players who followed Brady to Tampa Bay would have also followed him to Chicago. That means Gronkowski, Brown, Fournette, and McCoy may have all joined forces on the Bears alongside Brady.
The 2020 Bears made the postseason without Brady and his guys, so they had a formidable roster already. With an influx of even more talent, they likely would have competed for a Super Bowl just as the Buccaneers did, and they perhaps would have been even more likely to win it.
David Montgomery rushed for over 1,000 yards, and Cordarrelle Patterson provided the team with a chess piece skillset to use all over the field. Allen Robinson and Darnell Mooney combined for 1,881 receiving yards, and Jimmy Graham and Cole Kmet formed a solid tight end room.
Defensively, Roquan Smith was emerging as one of the best linebackers in football, and Khalil Mack was still one of the best defensive players in the league at the edge rusher position. Big-name players such as Danny Trevathan, Eddie Jackson, Tashaun Gipson, Kyle Fuller, Akiem Hicks, Robert Quinn, and Mario Edwards filled out what was an impressive defensive unit.
The Bears had a solid roster; it was just the quarterback position that gave them fits. Mitchell Trubisky was the team's 2018 second-overall pick, but he was already looking like a bust by 2020. His backup, Nick Foles, had some big moments in his career, but he was predominantly a career backup for a reason, and he didn't even beat Trubisky out in an open competition during the preseason. Trubisky ended up starting nine games, but he was eventually benched in favor of Foles, who ended up with seven starts on the season. An injury eventually forced Trubisky back into starting duties.
What would have happened if Tom Brady signed with the Bears?
Had Brady been signed, there would have never been a quarterback competition in Chicago, and the team would have had much better production with the GOAT at the helm. Quarterback was Chicago's biggest problem, and Brady would have answered any questions at that position, all while allowing for even more talent to join the roster.
Chicago has long been looking for a quarterback. With Trubisky's struggles in Chicago, the Bears quickly moved off of their high draft pick and took another quarterback in the first round in 2021 in Justin Fields. Fields also didn't work out, and he is now playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Most recently, the Bears drafted Caleb Williams with the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Chicago is hopeful that they've finally found their franchise guy, as Williams was considered one of the best draft prospects ever.
Had Brady been a Bear, though, they likely would have never been in the position to select Williams. The Bears had the first overall pick because they made a previous trade with the Carolina Panthers. The Bears were the worst team in 2022, which afforded them the number one pick, which they then traded to the Panthers because Carolina wanted to pick Bryce Young.
In that deal, they ended up with the Panthers 2024 first-round pick (in addition to a number of other assets), which became the first overall pick in 2024 and was turned into Williams. Brady did play in the 2022 season, and he would have never allowed the Bears to become the worst team in the NFL, which means the chain of events that landed Williams in Chicago would have never happened.
Regardless, the 2019 Bears had eight wins compared to the 2019 Buccaneers, who had seven wins. Brady led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl in 2020 and playoff appearances in the succeeding two seasons. Had Brady become a member of the Bears, you'd have to imagine he would have found similar success. After all, he is the greatest player of all time. If the Bears won a championship, anything that followed would have been well worth it, even if it meant they weren't the team that ended up with Caleb Williams.
