Cliff, what do you think of this?

Well, first of all, however much it is, Tom Brady's earned every penny.

I mean, I I didn't think it was out of the question that they could win a Super Bowl because the team was so stacked.

But I thought he would be along for the ride.

A game manager.

And he's clearly more than that.

He threw 40 touchdowns last year.

He was still excellent, and he proved his point that it was the lack of weapons in New England.

He's still got it, and he's worth every penny, whatever that is now.

I don't think it's coincidence that I don't think it's coincidental that the goat Tom Brady has always allowed the team to kick the can down the road to get cap relief so that they could afford to put a team around him.

It's very smart of him now.

I'm not saying every player should follow that example.

Almost no one will ever play, maybe never as late as he did at this level, Right?

Who's gonna play 20 plus years in the NFL?

Not many are going to be married to a super rich spouse.

You know, I get that he has circumstances, and also he's had longevity that where he's benefited from all this, that's not going to be everyone.

But when the when the owners brought in the salary cap, they really did pose this question to players.

Essentially, how much do you want and how much do you want to win?

Because those two things sometimes are at odds.

And Tom Brady has always been the best at providing the team with relief at his own short term financial expense, though obviously it's worked out for him in the long run, he's determined to play through the age of 45.

I don't think that he'll play the next four years, but I think this guarantees that he's going to complete his mission of playing up until the age of 45.

He turns 44 on August 3rd, so that means he'll play next season at the age of 40.

For the following season.

Uh, he'll turn 45.

He'll complete those two years.

In the meantime, he gave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cat relief, which enables them to keep, for the most part, the players that they had to play.

I don't think it's an accident.

Why they franchise Godwin, as opposed to Shaq?

Barrett?

Why?

Because God, one is the one that Tom Brady is throwing the football to.

Y'all figure out what the hell y'all gonna do on defense, but you make sure there are offensive weapons that I have available to me remains elite and intact, and that's exactly what he's doing here.

And so when you look at it from that perspective and what he's enabled the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to do, that's what it is about.

The four year extension is not to say that they're gonna throw them away to the trash, uh, in year three or four, because that's all gonna be contingent on how he's playing.

But what they've done is they've made a commitment to him because he's worthy of that commitment, that we want you here as long as you want to be here.

So he has the level of security.

They're, quite frankly, he didn't get in the latter years in New England.

He ain't wondering or guessing or anything like that.

He's in Tampa.

Florida is the Sunshine State.

The weather in South Florida is beautiful on top of all of that.

It's a tax, no state income taxes there.

His money goes a long way.

He's got Derek Jeter's mansion unless he's moved someplace else that I don't know about.

There's a separate room for anti buying at this point is that there is a separate room for Antonio Brown if he wants that, too, because Antonio Brown is gonna be even better next year than he was this year.

Assuming that he still stays there.

You still got God.

When you got Evans, you got O.

J.

Howard coming back.

Still got We're gonna get better.

Kowski is probably coming back as well.

You look at the pieces that they have in place.

He's basically saying, My boys, we all won the Super Bowl together and we handled our business.

I'm gonna do what I can to keep us in play while at the same time securing that.

If I want to be here, there's absolutely no problem with me being here.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made that commitment.

He deserves it.

I'm happy for him.

There's no question that we can all look at Tom Brady and realize that especially towards the end of his time in New England.

He took less than a fair market deal because there was a desire.

Or at least they thought that the team would then put good players around him to compete for a championship every single year.

Well, in New England, that trust seemed like it was broken.

And I think that this extension signals that he trusts Tampa Bay to do exactly what he thought New England would do when he took under a fair market deal.

Think about this.

He signs a two year, $50 million contract with Tampa last year.

That's actually a worse deal than the deal Philip Rivers signed with the Colts a year ago.

Philip Rivers was a one year, $25 million deal, and then he was gonna be free again, like think about like for a second.

He signed a worse deal than Philip Rivers a year ago, and now he's signing a deal that I think we probably would all agree That gives them a ton of relief, and it gives them the opportunity, whether it's Shaq, Barrett, whether it's Gronk, whether it's Antonio Brown, whether somebody at the running back position like what it's done is it's essentially given Brady the assurance that, hey, we're going to give you another shot at this to go win another one.

But let me let me answer that.

And then Steven, I want to answer is something that you said.

I think that Belichick, the reason Brady left in retrospect is not that Belichick they will spend the same amount of money more or less is that he was spending it on the defense resources are going to the defense, and that seemed to reflect a belief that maybe Brady was declining and unable to carry a team and had to rely on the running game in the defense more.

And I think that's probably what Eric Brady, because you see the Bucks investing in the offense.

But I want to say something about the offense.

Stephen A.

In fact, when you look at at the receivers, Godwin is actually the expendable one.

He's young, he's already very good.

But a B, if he's firing on all cylinders, is in the best of all time conversation and and Evans is probably the next best receiver on the team.

When you're not talking about the tight ends, you can also catch passes, right?

And then Scotty Miller is really the burner.

He's really the speed guy.

So Godwin is the one that they haven't committed to a franchise.

Them, but they haven't committed to.

And Shaq Barrett, they're they're having contract negotiations with They are having contract negotiation with him.

But I would remind you, even though we lamented the fact that Chris Godwin dropped a couple of passes, you know, in the latter part of the season, particularly the playoffs, for the most part, he wasn't really dropping passes.

He was.

He was a reliable weapon for them.

You moved into the slot to some degree.

He was 24 years of age.

Consider the kind of thing that he has that kind of potential of.

I'm sorry, I I don't I don't I don't view Chris Godwin is the most expendable one at all, considering his youth and his skill set and what he brings to the table and the fact that Brady spoke so glowingly about him.

This is a target that when you talk about Brady being here for the next 23 possibly four years, you want to franchise them for a reason I want to.

I think they think it seems to me they think maybe this guy can be great.

He's not there yet.

Let me see it once before we give them the contract.

Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

Subscribe to ESPN plus.