Author: nfltalk

It’s hard to fathom that Tom Brady has any regrets about his NFL career. Brady, after all, is the only player in league history to win seven Super Bowls and five Super Bowl MVP awards. Brady also won three league MVP awards (tied for the second-most in league history) and is the NFL’s all-time career leader in career passing yards and touchdown passes. 

Brady, however, wishes he would have gone about his craft a little differently. That, he said, is one of his biggest regrets when he looks back on his 23-year career. 

“What I would have changed was … when I see these young players, I see Patrick (Mahomes) out there at quarterback, running around, having fun, I’m like, ‘I used to be like that! What the hell happened to me?’” Brady recently said on “The Pivot” podcast. “I just got too serious. 

“But again, I can only look back and think, ‘OK, if I do it again — which I’ll never do it again — I would be different, but the reality is that you can’t. So you just learn from it and go, ‘OK, in the next phase of life, enjoy it a little more.’” 

Brady possibly taking the game too seriously is one regret he has from a career that is considered to be the greatest in NFL history. Perhaps Brady’s other big regret from his career is the Patriots’ 17-14 loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII that prevented New England from becoming only the second NFL team to go undefeated. 

“We were crushed,” Brady said on Apple TV’s documentary on the Patriots dynasty. “I was crushed. That was our history-making game. That would have been everything. … We were as devastated as you could be. There was no sleep. There was no sleep for a long time.” 

Brady and the Patriots didn’t win that game, but the Patriots would go onto win three more Super Bowls during Brady’s run in New England. Brady would then win a seventh Super Bowl win as a member of the Buccaneers at the end of the 2020 season. 

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Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers missed the team’s mandatory minicamp because he had a pre-planned trip to Egypt, sources told SNY.

Rodgers attended every day of the team’s Phase 1 voluntary workouts. He missed one week of Phase 2 but attended every organized team activity workout – also voluntary.

Rodgers originally pieced this trip together during his recovery from his Achilles injury. It gave him something to look forward to during one of the lowest points of his career. He’s long admired Egyptian culture and scheduled the visit for what was believed to be after the offseason programs.

The Jets were made aware of the trip when the official minicamp dates were announced (June 11, 12) and overlapped with Rodgers’ plans. While an unexcused absence, the team is not concerned, sources told SNY, that this will impact Rodgers’ season. They wanted him at minicamp but were understanding of how important this trip was for him.

As one source put it: Rodgers’ absence during the two-day minicamp will not impact the Jets season whatsoever.

Multiple players SNY touched base with had zero issue with Rodgers missing minicamp, all pointing towards his attendance during the voluntary portion. Those same players were surprised that those outside One Jets Drive felt differently.

Hysteria over Rodgers’ whereabouts emerged largely because of the way the absence was announced. From the Jets perspective: They did not want to set a precedent for players missing mandatory workouts for pre-planned trips (pass rusher Haason Reddick was the only other Jets player not in attendance – he wants a new contract). While they were aware of Rodgers’ trip, and understanding of why it was important to him, their public stance on the matter gave the impression they were not and discounted Rodgers’ near perfect attendance throughout the voluntary portion of the offseason program.

Mandatory minicamp, while mandatory, is simply two practices structured identically to the OTAs Rodgers did…

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Super Bowl champion Michael Strahan hung up his cleats following the 2007 season at the age of 36 after 15 seasons with the New York Giants. Now 52, Strahan is considering retirement again, this time from television.

Strahan has become a familiar face on television, as a host of multiple shows and serving as an analyst for Fox NFL Sunday. The Good Morning America host is also a dad of four, and his family is one main reason he is considering leaving the small screen.

While on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Strahan discussed his career and his family and how the two impact each other.

His daughter Isabella was diagnosed with brain cancer in October. Strahan has taken some time off to spend more time with his daughter, supporting her through chemotherapy. During an interview on GMA he reflected on the difficulty of the diagnosis. 

“You’d think I’m the athlete, the tough guy, the father in the family. It is not about any of that. It has really made me change my perspective on so many things,” he said.

The diagnosis has emphasized the importance of time with family and it is something he mentions when discussing reasons he would eventually retire. 

“I love my life and I enjoy my life, but at some point, my kids are in college, I want to be able to go to college and say, ‘Yeah let’s take a trip,’ ” he said, rather than have to work around his schedule and the NFL schedule.

While he sees it happening eventually, he would not say how soon it will be. Strahan said he has a bet going with his friend over how many years he will work before retiring, but kept the number private.

“I want a life where there’s some freedom at some point. Is it in two years, three years, five years, fifteen, twenty?” the Giants Ring of Honor member said.

He loves what he is doing now and says it is not about the money, but for the appreciation of the work and wants to make sure it stays that way.

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ESPN analytics low on big Bears improvements, playoff chances. Inside the numbers originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

On paper, the Bears are one of the most improved teams in the NFL this year. ESPN analytics doesn’t see those improvements leading to significantly more wins in 2024, however.

On NFL Live, ESPN shared that their analytics believes the Bears will win 8.5 games next year– that’s just one or two wins better than last year’s 7-10 record. Further, their analytics gives the Bears just a 42% chance to make the playoffs.

Former NFL safety and front office exec Louis Riddick believes the Bears will outplay the analytics projections, however.

“This is a team that can make drastic, drastic improvements,” Riddick said on NFL Live. “Could this be a team that rises up and surprises people? Yeah, it could, because person for person, when you’re looking at it on a piece of paper or on a computer screen, they have weapons that can match up with anybody, specifically offensively, and they have an offensive line that is very underrated.”

The key for the Bears to outperform ESPN analytics’ projection in Riddick’s estimation is the relation between rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.

“Can Shane allow Caleb to control things on the football field to the degree where Caleb is able to consistently make good decisions, not turn the football over, not put the football in harm’s way and not turn every play into the ad-lib play, which he knows he’s spectacular at and he knows that he can’t get away with in the NFL?”

One of the major reasons that ESPN analytics is low on the Bears’ playoff chances is that the NFC North has seemingly become one of the most competitive in the NFL. The Lions were a few plays away from reaching the playoffs last year; the Packers won a playoff game with Jordan Love taking over as the team’s starting quarterback; the Vikings have one of the best receiving duos in the…

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