Surprise! Miami Dolphins not only AFC East team with an uncertain QB situation for 2020

We have known for a while that 2020 was going to be a big deal for the Miami Dolphins largely because a quarterback search that will be 20 seasons in the making is supposed to finally turn up a franchise player.

But who knew 2020 was going to be a seismic year in the AFC East and perhaps the entire NFL because of a looming quarterback decision about to play out in New England?

Well, it’s happening.

And it obviously involves Tom Brady.

In South Florida the Dolphins are managing their current quarterback situation between Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen with little certainty week to week. The best player the week before probably starts the following week, and anyone who doesn’t perform might get benched.

“I think I just look at it as a week-to-week proposition,” Fitzpatrick said of his starter status Thursday. “I’m pouring everything I have into the Steelers right now. I know and have experienced a lot just how quickly things change in this league, so I’m giving everything I have to perform well on Monday night this week.”

Translation: Fitz knows he’s playing for the right to keep starting.

But the mind-numbing thing is the Patriots this week are similarly managing some quarterback uncertainty, albeit with a long view rather than week-to-week question marks.

It has been simmering for a while but began to boil before Monday night’s 33-0 New England victory over the New York Jets, when ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter speculated on the pregame show that he believes Brady has three options for the 2020 season.

Those, he said, are retiring, staying in New England or playing elsewhere.

And staying in New England, Schefter said, was the least likely of those.

Schefter cited the fact Brady and his personal trainer and confidant Alex Guerrero are selling their New England homes as an omen that change is coming. I don’t see an address change alone as signaling all that, but let’s just say there’s smoke here.

The thing is when Brady was asked about the topic on his weekly Boston area radio hit, he declined to pour water on the smoke. He actually confirmed his status with New England is quite uncertain beyond this year.

“I think that’s the great part for me — I don’t know. I think that’s been a unique situation that I’ve been in,” Brady said Wednesday morning on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.

“I think when you commit to a team for a certain amount of years, you kind of feel like your responsibility is to always fulfill the contract. For me, it’s been good because I’m just taking it day by day, and I’m enjoying what I have. I don’t know what the future holds, and the great part is, for me, football at this point is all borrowed time.

“One day I’ll wake up and feel like that will be enough. When that day comes, that day comes. I don’t know if it will be after this year. I don’t know if it will be five years from now. But I don’t have to determine those things right now either,” Brady continued. “That’s kind of a good part where I’m at. So I think just taking advantage of the opportunity that I have this year and do the very best I can do. Those decisions come at the more appropriate times.”

That’s a lot of words. But let me tell you some words not included in those last three paragraphs: I’ve always played for the New England Patriots and I’ll be doing that again in 2020.

Brady agreed to restructure his contract this summer, which includes voidable years in 2020 and ‘21. So Brady will be a free agent after this season. And the contract also prohibits the Patriots from placing the franchise tag on Brady.

So all the fine football reporters in New England have spent part of this week writing about how Brady might shop his services in 2020 if he decides to continue playing. That doesn’t mean he will absolutely leave the fold. Many New England players in the past have shopped themselves in free agency only to return to the Patriots.

But can you honestly imagine Tom Brady on the free agent market — even at age 42?

Bedlam!

This is the part were I should tell you Brady will never play for the Miami Dolphins.

It doesn’t make sense. The Dolphins are not close to being competitive, which is what Brady always expects to be. The Dolphins are light years from being postseason relevant, which is what Brady expects to be. The Dolphins are not going to vie for a Super Bowl in 2020, which is what Brady always expects to do.

Got it?

But, Brady attended Michigan. As did Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who is a huge donor to the school.

And half the Dolphins’ coaching staff, including head coach Brian Flores and offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea, worked with Brady in New England.

And the Dolphins have three first-round draft picks and two second-round picks and will have an estimated $120 million in salary cap space next offseason — which suggests they will be much better than they are this season.

But, again, that’s a pipe dream. It’s unrealistic.

What is more realistic is perhaps Brady going elsewhere. And that would turn the AFC East upside down and signal a new era within the division as surely as when Jim Kelly and Dan Marino retired in Buffalo and Miami back in the 1990s.

The problem for Brady is where would he go?

My first thought is he would be welcome following current Pats offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels wherever he goes if he finally jumps to his second head coaching opportunity. Of course, we don’t know if that opportunity will manifest or if McDaniels would take it, because he has turned down other jobs, including Indianapolis in 2018.

Brady is familiar with multiple former Patriots assistants now leading teams around the NFL. Bill O’Brien is in Houston. Matt Patricia is in Detroit. The problem with Brady jumping to those teams is they have quarterbacks.

The Tennessee Titans are coached by Mike Vrabel, a former Brady teammate. And vice president and GM Jon Robinson was hired from the New England front office. And that team has uncertainty at quarterback.

The problem there? The Titans also have uncertainty at the coaching position because Vrabel is 12-11 as a head coach and 3-4 this season. So let’s wait until Vrabel survives this season before we send Brady to Nashville.

Brady’s from California. Except San Francisco, the Chargers, and Rams have good quarterback situations at the moment. The 49ers, in fact, are the only other undefeated team apart from New England right now.

The Raiders? That sounds possible except the Oakland Raiders will be the Las Vegas Raiders starting in 2020 so that complicates the going home factor.

I suppose the Denver Broncos, who once lured Peyton Manning and got him to two Super Bowls late in his career, would also welcome a chance to lure Brady. I suppose the same respect Manning had for John Elway would be mirrored by Brady.

All pretty interesting. But all subservient to the greater point, which is at a time everyone expected the Dolphins to be the only AFC East team significantly addressing its quarterback situation in 2020, lo and behold, another team is emerging.

The New England Patriots.

This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 12:37 AM.