NFL Rumors: How 'Sustainability' Might Hinder Tom Brady During Free Agency

One NFL writer has heard that "sustainability" is the biggest worry about Tom Brady as he enters free agency at age 42.

NFL teams that are interested in signing Tom Brady during free agency won't just assess how he has performed in recent years, but how he is projected to perform in the near future. 

At 42 years old, the decline has seemingly begun for Brady, albeit at a slower pace than quarterbacks like Peyton Manning, who went from being the leagues MVP and throwing 55 touchdowns in 2013 to throwing just nine of them in 2015. But it is nevertheless something other teams around the league will see as problematic when they try to determine, if they haven't already, whether they can improve with Brady as their QB.

This concept is something NFL Network's Mike Giardi spoke about on NFL Network on Thursday. Giardi said he has spoken to people around the league who brought up one word when speaking about Brady: sustainability. 

“I’ve been talking to a bunch of different people from around the league and front offices, and they’ve said, ‘Look, he’s still a good quarterback, capable of great moments.’ But the one thing that they all said to me, and I think this kind of sticks out — and maybe how they feel here in Foxboro — was ‘sustainability,’" Giardi said. "Because he’s had a lot of issues over the last two years, physically. And no, he doesn’t miss games, but it’s impacted his performance. Usually, when you turn 43, those things don’t get easier; they get harder to deal with.”

It seems that any team that will be interested in signing Brady this offseason should be in win-now mode. On the decline and as a player that looks to only have a couple, maybe three playing years left in him, if a team wants to win a championship with the six-time Super Bowl champion at the helm, 2020 is the best time to do it. 

Many of the teams rumored to be interested in Brady, such as the Chargers, Raiders, Buccaneers and Titans, have lots of money to spend this offseason. So, if they decide to sign the 42-year-old QB, it would makes sense for them to empty their bank accounts and put themselves in a position to win next season. But as Giardi mentioned, Brady's decline may hinder his market value during free agency, which could deter any or all of those teams from wanting to sign him.