On Super Bowl Sunday, Tom Brady told Jim Gray he's spoken with the Patriots.
It was assumed he was referring to contract talks since he's due to become a free agent in six weeks, but maybe that wasn't the case after all.
Appearing on The Greg Hill Show Wednesday, ESPN's Adam Schefter said Brady and the Patriots have no had contract discussions to this point.
“Not contractually. They haven’t had negotiations," he said. "They haven’t sat down to have the conversation they need to have — ‘Hey, what do you want to do?’ I am sure they are talking generally. Yeah, I am sure. They were at the Super Bowl on Sunday together.”
Also on Sunday, NFL Media's Ian Rapoport reported the Patriots would be willing to go in excess of $30 million to keep Brady, but Schefter doesn't seem to buy it.
“I don’t think they can do that, but OK let’s not let facts get in the way here," he said, referring to the salary cap and potentially re-signing Brady for that figure, while also being able to add pieces around him.
Schefter does think the Patriots will reach a resolution with Brady before free agency begins following what happened last offseason with Rob Gronkowski. He mentioned March 1 as a target date, but later said it doesn't necessarily have to be that early.
“I am just saying if you’re New England, you need to get that answer," he said. "You can’t repeat at quarterback what happened at tight end last year. At tight end last year Rob Gronkowski announces the eve of the owners meetings in late March he’s retiring. We were two weeks into free agency at that point in time. There’s no other suitable alternatives on the free agent market at tight end and New England really never filled the position all year long. They did the best they could, but there’s nobody like that.
"… If they went through that last year at tight end, why would they go through that at quarterback when you know that is coming.”
New England can re-sign Brady at any time, while the rest of the league cannot speak to the quarterback until the legal tampering period begins on March 16.
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