Explaining how Buccaneers will rework Tom Brady’s contract after retirement

Seven-time Super Bowl-winning and future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Tom Brady announced his retirement this morning, on February 1st, 2023.

The GOAT retired after contemplating coming back for a 24th season in 2023, but is stepping away after he originally planned to retire last season. He announced on Twitter in a video that he is retiring for good this time.

Tom Brady is retiring with more Super Bowl victories (7) than any franchise, and holds nearly every important passing record such as completions, yards, touchdowns, and wins.

While Brady is set to become a free agent in 2023, the Bucs still owe him in dead cap money. However, since he is retiring, it is expected that Brady and the Bucs will agree to a restructured deal with a minimum salary of $1.165 million for the 2023 season.

This will allow the team to carry his contract at $11.9 million through June 1st, and they will be charged $24 million in 2024 for the remaining dead cap they owe.

While the team will still have to pay and suffer dead cap hits, it allows them some flexibility for this upcoming season as $24 million will be accounted for in 2024.

Tom Brady career-earnings: how much did the seven-time Super Bowl-winning QB make in 23 seasons?

NFC Wild Card Playoffs - Dallas Cowboys v Tampa Bay Buccaneers

In 23 NFL seasons, Brady earned a total of a whopping $333 million. That spans from the year of 2000 where he made just $231,000 in his rookie season to 2023 where he made $30 million in his last season.

Despite all of his success, Tom Brady has only made over $20 million in four seasons and was paid the most in 2021 ($39.4 million).

While that is certainly a great amount of money, he will be making more in the next 10 years off the field. Before the start of last season, Brady and Fox Sports agreed to a 10-year $375 million deal to pay him as a color commentator for whenever he chooses to retire and work for them.

The $375 million he is set to earn is $42 million more than he made in 23 years as an NFL quarterback.

It certainly pays to have a name, and if your name is Tom Brady, you're going to get paid big. He will have made $708 million playing football and talking about football, while also making more money in many other ways.