Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht didn’t sound like a man convinced he was losing the greatest quarterback of all time to retirement.
Licht was asked about quarterback Tom Brady — and the Buccaneers’ plans at the position. He made no clear indication about the team’s expectations, with speculation swirling that Brady, who announced his retirement in February, might return to the NFL as soon as the 2022 season.
“We’ll see what the future holds,” Licht said during an interview on NFL Network on Tuesday at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. “We’ll leave the light on. You always leave the light on for a guy like Tom Brady.”
The tricky thing about waiting for Brady is that he might never reverse his retirement decision. At a certain point, the Buccaneers will have to make a plan at quarterback. Licht indicated he thinks highly of quarterback Kyle Trask, who the Bucs drafted in the second round last year.
Past him?
“Right now, we’re trying to make our plans to move forward, if that’s the case that we need to move forward,” Licht said. “There’s a lot of things that we still have to get — there’s a lot of time here.”
.@Buccaneers fans, get over here!
GM @jasonrlicht joined @PSchrags at the #NFLCombine.
"You always leave the light on for a guy like @TomBrady." pic.twitter.com/3nclaP6fsa
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) March 1, 2022
It will be fascinating to watch the Buccaneers proceed in the coming months. If they sign players, they might enter a situation where they cannot bring Brady back onto the team, due to salary cap constraints. But if they wait too long, they could also miss out on opportunities to reload for 2022.
