New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
QB Carousel Spins Into Season
After a 40-day whirl, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerfully hopped off the NFL’s crowded quarterback carousel when Tom Brady decided he had “unfinished business” in the game he’s dominated for more than two decades. “These past two months I’ve realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands,” Brady wrote on Instagram and Twitter in announcing he’d changed his mind about retiring. “That time will come. But it’s not now. I love my teammates, and I love my supportive family. They make it all possible.
“I’m coming back.”
Albeit without star tight end Rob Gronkowski, who has been with Brady for 11 of the last 12 seasons and celebrated championships with him in both New England and Tampa.
Nonetheless, with the seven-time Super Bowl winner returning for a 23rd season, the Bucs didn’t have to switch starting QBs like so many other teams did in an offseason shuffle like none other.
Even the two franchises that had been the models of stability over the last decade at the game’s most important position — the Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons — changed QBs.
Premier passers were at the center of the two biggest blockbuster trades as Seattle sent Russell Wilson to Denver for three players and five draft picks and Houston shipped Deshaun Watson and a sixth-round selection to Cleveland for five draft picks, including three first-rounders.
The Watson swap had a ripple effect across the league, leading to Baker Mayfield’s departure from Cleveland and Matt Ryan’s exit from Atlanta, where he’d started since 2008.
Watson appeared to be headed to the Falcons before agreeing to the Cleveland trade after the Browns put a fully guaranteed $230 million contract on the table. He won’t be eligible until Week 13, however, following an 11-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy after he was accused of sexual misconduct by two dozen women.
“My whole life I just have been able to move forward and that’s the plan,” said Watson, who can return for the Browns’ game against his former team, the Texans, in Houston on Dec. 4.
Wilson returns to Seattle with his new team on Sept. 12 to cap an opening weekend that also features a revenge game with the Browns, behind stand-in Jacoby Brissett, at Carolina, where Mayfield beat out Sam Darnold after asking out of Cleveland.
Wilson will be the sixth Broncos quarterback in six years to start Denver’s season opener, but he swears he’s not anticipating an emotional homecoming when he kicks off the second chapter of his career back in Seattle.
Whether he’s serenaded by cheers or jeers, Wilson said he’ll stay even-keeled just like he always did while compiling a 104-53-1 regular season record for the Seahawks.
Mayfield, on the other hand, admitted there will be some extra incentive in going against the Browns on Sept. 11: “Obviously there is a lot of attachment there and I’m not going to sit here and be a robot and say that it doesn’t mean anything,” Mayfield said. “It will.”
Mayfield helped the Browns end a long playoff drought and win their first postseason game since 1994 but he went 29-30 as their starter and struggled at times with injuries and inconsistency.
Wilson led the Seahawks to the playoffs eight times in 10 years and helped them win their only Super Bowl before his relationship with coach Pete Carroll soured.
So, the Seahawks parted ways with a quarterback at the prime age of 33 and embarked on a camp competition between Drew Lock and Geno Smith, one that left fans dreaming of watching Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Alabama’s Bryce Young or Kentucky’s Will Levis donning a Seahawks cap at the 2023 NFL draft.
Wilson figures he’s only at halftime of his NFL career. “I want to win three or four more Super Bowls. That’s the plan,” said Wilson, who didn’t miss a game until last year, when a fractured right middle finger sidelined him for a month after he’d started his first 165 games, including 16 in the playoffs.
Ryan started 232 of 235 games for Atlanta, including Super Bowl 51, but after the Falcons flirted with Watson, Ryan got a fresh start in Indianapolis, where the Colts moved on from Carson Wentz after just one year. Wentz is now Washington’s starter and Marcus Mariota is now starting in Atlanta.
After Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement, the Steelers signed free agent Mitch Trubisky, who spent four turbulent years in Chicago before serving as Josh Allen’s backup in Buffalo last fall, and they also drafted Kenny Pickett out of Pitt. Trey Lance spent his rookie year on the bench behind Jimmy Garoppolo but has been handed over the reins in San Francisco.
A LOOK AT OTHER TOP STORYLINES THIS UPCOMING NFL SEASON:
RODGER THAT: Two-time defending NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers thought long and hard about leaving Green Bay before agreeing to a three-year, $150 million contract. Yet, Rodgers lost his top target when Davante Adams was shipped to Las Vegas, where he’s reunited with Derek Carr, his college quarterback, in exchange for two high draft picks.
CASH GRAB: Wide receivers are now making quarterback cash. The Raiders gave Adams a five-year, $140 million deal as the financial frenzy over elite pass catchers erupted. The Dolphins acquired Tyreek Hill from Kansas City for five draft picks and made him the first $30 million-a-year receiver with a fouryear, $120 million contract. And the Eagles signed A.J. Brown to a four-year deal worth $100 million after acquiring him from the Titans.
WALMART WEALTH: Walmart heir Rob Walton and his family paid $4.65 billion for the Broncos, a world record for a pro sports franchise. Forbes estimates Walton’s net worth at $59.4 billion, making him by far the league’s wealthiest owner. Carolina’s David Tepper is next at $16.7 billion. The Broncos suddenly have the requisite escrow to sign colossal long-term contracts — Russell Wilson for $300 million? — while fans can envision a fancy new stadium like the ones the Chargers and Raiders play in.
THREE-PEAT: Want to take a flyer on the Super Bowl? How about the Cardinals at 30-to-1? After going 54 years without a team winning the Super Bowl in its home stadium, the Rams did it last season one year after the Buccaneers became the first to accomplish the feat. Super Bowl 57 is Feb. 12 at State
Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.