Tom Brady has dropped at least $ 60 million in contracts to keep the Patriots competitive

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The New England Patriots ruled the NFL for two decades in a way that no other team in the history of the league had ever had.

Much of that was finding a legendary quarterback at Tom Brady, who not only dominated the field but sacrificed to put his team in a good position.

Brady made a lot of money in his career in the NFL – about $ 197 million – but what would have happened if he had not reduced or restructured contracts during of his career to help the Patriots? Brady would be a richer man, and perhaps the highest paid player in the history of the NFL.

While Brady consistently signed agreements equivalent to those of the larger watch contracts, we found that he could have made $ 257.9 million by that date. That's about $ 60 million more than his actual earnings, and about $ 9 million more than Peyton Manning does in his career, the most in the history of the NFL (you can see how we have reached this number below).

Jenny Chang / Business Insider

Measuring such a thing is not an exact science. In the NFL, even the best and best paid players rarely see the end of a contract. In the case of Brady and the Patriots, they often adjusted their offers to lower their base salary and cap hits to meet the needs of the list while giving them a larger signing bonus and money to l & # 39; advance.

To project Brady's non-discounted career gains, we kept the same deal for his first rookie and his first expansion. In 2002, Brady signed a $ 28 million, four-year contract. His next expansion was in 2005. At that time, he won three Super Bowls and was Super Bowl MVP twice. It is safe to assume that by 2005, he could have started ordering the best deals.

We imagined a scenario in which Brady signed new agreements in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017, which equates to the current time for the top quarterback. In each of those four years, we imagined that Brady signed a new contract equal to that of the biggest contracts for quarterback veterans signed before this season or the previous season. We also imagined that Brady only played four seasons under each contract and then signed a new contract.

Here are the contracts we used:

• 2005: Peyton Manning – 7 years, $ 99.2 million
• 2009: Eli Manning – 6 years old, $ 99.8 million
• 2013: Drew Brees – 5 years, $ 100 million [19659015] 2017: Ben Roethlisberger – 4 years, $ 87.4 million

An important note: In 2017, Matthew Stafford signed the largest five-year watch contract, 135 million of dollars. However, with Brady turning 40 this season, we have covered up, imagining the Patriots being cautious and not committing such a number to a player entering his forties.

Again, it's a conservative estimate. If we were to use Stafford's $ 135 million contract in 2017, Brady would have dropped nearly $ 76 million at this point in his career.

One could also say that Brady could demand better than the best quarterback business in a given year. For example, Brady could have demanded what the best quarterbacks got, plus 10% more. Who would say no?

A more aggressive estimate would suggest that Brady sacrificed something close to $ 100 million.

Of course, it is possible that if Brady took a maximum of chances whenever he could, his heritage and that of the Patriots could be different. In 2007, Brady restructured his business to make room for Randy Moss. In recent years, he has taken money in advance so that the Patriots can sign up again for free key agents. Maybe if Brady had not restructured or accepted new offers, the Patriots would not have been so good, removing a bit of luster to both parties.

Brady said that he wanted to play until he was 45, which means that he still has some opportunities to cash in. But for now, the best quarterback in the history of the NFL will not be the best paid.