Tom Brady Loses Out on Millions After Betting on Himself
Coming off a year when he was the NFL MVP for the third time, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady negotiated $5 million in incentives into his $15 million per year salary before the start of the season.
If Brady met each of the five, $1 million incentives, his salary would jump up to $20 million.
The fact that one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time was playing for incentives after he won the MVP award in 2017 is another story altogether.
But putting that aside, the 41-year-old Brady did not hit any of the five incentives after having a subpar year, at least by his lofty standards.
Tom Brady set to earn none of his incentives https://t.co/V2PWuC32Ra via @ProFootballTalk
— DocKAC (@DocKAC) December 30, 2018
So that means Brady was the 21st-highest-paid quarterback in the NFL in 2018. Let that sink in.
Tyrod Taylor, Blake Bortles, Andy Dalton, Case Keenum, Ryan Tannehill, Joe Flacco, Eli Manning, Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo all make more in salary than Brady.
Even if Brady had hit all of his incentives, he’d only be 16th-highest-paid QB.
The six highest-paid quarterbacks — Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Kirk Cousins, Jimmy Garoppolo, Matthew Stafford and Derek Carr — all failed to make the playoffs. Drew Brees, who earned $25 million, same as Carr, did make the playoffs.
As for Brady, it wasn’t his greatest year.
Highest rate of off-target throws, 2018
1. Josh Allen 23.7%
2. Sam Darnold 20.4%
3. Tom Brady 20.1%
4. Aaron Rodgers 19.9%
5. Matthew Stafford 19.4%Excludes throwaways
[Source: ESPN]
— Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) January 1, 2019
He agreed to the incentives, which required him to finish in the top five in the following categories: passer rating, completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown passes and passing yards.
In his MVP year in 2017, Brady was top five in all these categories. Bu this year, the closest he got was passing yards, where he finished seventh with 4,355 yards. He finished 10th in touchdown passes with 29 but was outside the top 10 in the three other categories.
Specifically, his completion percentage was 65.8, his yards per attempt was 7.6 and his passer rating was 97.7.
Brady’s numbers weren’t that far off his 2017 stats: 4,577 yards, 32 touchdowns, eight interceptions, 66.3 percent completion and 102.3 passer rating. But he did not keep pace with the numbers that many of the league’s gunslingers were putting up in 2018.
He did look very un-Brady-like at times. For example, in a game against Buffalo he had only 126 yards passing, one touchdown, two interceptions and a 48.3 rating. And against Detroit he had just 133 yards passing, one touchdown, one interception and a 65.1 percent passer rating.
At 41, it’s only it’s only a matter of time before Brady slows down.
Tom Brady was asked which QB stat means the most to him.
His answer: pic.twitter.com/d2vRftCB3w
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) December 28, 2018
Brady might not have cashed in on the bets he made on himself with these incentives, but now that it’s playoff time, it could be unwise to bet against the five-time Super Bowl champion.
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