It is no secret – the New York Jets are looking to move on from embattled quarterback Zach Wilson.

Wilson, selected second overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, came into last season as the backup to Aaron Rodgers. When Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles that ended his season just minutes into it began, Wilson was thrust back into the starting role.

Much like his previous two seasons, Wilson put up lackluster numbers in 2023. In 12 games, he passed for 2,271 yards in addition to just eight touchdown passes and seven interceptions. The Jets’ terrible offensive line didn’t help out Wilson either – but multiple seasons of being unable to elevate the play of the team is why Gang Green no longer seems committed long-term to the player once seen as a possible savior of the franchise.

With the Jets allowing Wilson to seek a trade last month, and rumors swirling about what team he will end up with next, here are three of the best landing spots for the talented-but-inconsistent quarterback.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Backup quarterbacks are a necessity in the current NFL climate. Sixteen starting quarterbacks missed time in 2023, meaning that having an experienced backup is vital. The Buccaneers depth chart in this regard is not great Kyle Trask has 10 career pass attempts. John Wolford has thrown five interceptions and just one touchdown pass in seven career games. Wilson has had a rough start to his NFL journey, but he has more experience and upside than either of the two quarterbacks mentioned above.

Kansas City Chiefs

Besides Patrick Mahomes, the only other two quarterbacks on the Chiefs roster are Ian Book and Chris Oladokun. Book has 20 pass attempts and Oladokun has yet to see playing time in his career. Like the Buccaneers situation, Wilson would give Kansas City a more experienced and talented backup. Mahomes is also arguably the most valuable player in the league – should he get hurt, having a more reliable and seasoned quarterback behind him in the depth chart remains even more vital.

Minnesota Vikings

Now this would be fun – two former Jets draft picks vying for a starting job? Sam Darnold as of now projected to be the starter for the Vikings in 2024. Jaren Hall and Nick Mullens are still on the roster. But one can dream, right? Two players with so much to prove battling it out in training camp would be fun to think about, not taking into account the numerous roadblocks that would prevent this from happening. Head coach Kevin O’Connell may want to draft a quarterback – but why not take a chance on the talented former BYU product?

Tom Brady’s second retirement announcement has evoked a similar, if tired, response from fans, who feel compelled to look back on the quarterback’s legendary career. But as many focus on the past, several teams around the league must adapt future plans with Brady off the market as a free agent.

There is a long list of teams that likely would have paid Brady an exorbitant amount of money to remain in the league, but no organization is more directly affected by his departure than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As Brady’s team for the past three years, the Bucs made it to the playoffs three times and won the Super Bowl in 2019. But Tampa Bay has been trending in the wrong direction, barely winning a weak NFC South division in 2022, and without a star quarterback at the helm, things become even less certain.

As of Brady’s retirement, the Bucs have two other quarterbacks under contract: Blaine Gabbert and Kyle Trask. Gabbert, a 33-year-old journeyman, could provide a short-term solution at the position, but it’s unlikely that the Bucs would leave Brady’s offense in his hands for long.

Meanwhile, Trask is entering his third season with the team after getting drafted in 2021 and finally made his first appearance in Week 18 this year. But after landing behind Gabbert on the depth chart for the past two seasons, it’s difficult to assess his ability as a starting NFL quarterback. Free agent targets for the Bucs could include Jimmy Garoppolo, Brady’s former backup for the Patriots, and Carson Wentz.

Before Brady announced his retirement for the second time, Tampa Bay was not the only team interested in signing him, and the Las Vegas Raiders were repeatedly tied to Brady in rumors and even official reports. The seven-time Super Bowl winner would have fit well in the Raiders’ current scheme; head coach Josh McDaniels was once his quarterback’s coach in New England and the team already has valuable offensive weapons in wide receiver Davante Adams and running back Josh Jacobs. But with that reality now off the table, the Raiders will have to consider other options.

Las Vegas seems intent on parting ways with Derek Carr, which leaves them with quarterbacks Jarrett Stidham and Chase Garbers. The team is almost certainly going to test the open market. Like the Bucs, Garoppolo also seems to be the Raiders’ most likely option as another former New England product with a reputable track record as the starter in San Francisco. But several rumors also suggest that the team could pursue Aaron Rodgers, which would reunite the Green Bay quarterback with Adams, his favorite receiver for many years as a Packer.

The third team tied to Brady before his announcement was the 49ers, who suddenly became a top candidate to receive the quarterback after they announced that Brock Purdy’s UCL injury, which he suffered in the NFC Championship game, would require nearly a year to heal.

The organization has already confirmed that it is parting ways with Garoppolo, and without Purdy or Brady, it will likely turn to 2021 first-round pick Trey Lance to take over Kyle Shanahan’s offense. Lance was named the 49ers’ starter in 2022 but suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2. He has since had two surgeries but should be available for the start of next season.

Though there were three apparent candidates to sign a now-retired Brady, several longshots were reported to have also inquired about his status at some point. All of these teams must now resort to other options as well.

The Dolphins, once rumored to be his next destination several years ago, were likely going to go in another direction anyway, as Tua Tagovailoa recently cleared concussion protocol and plans to be ready for the 2023 season.

A Brady reunion with the Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick enticed many fans as the quarterback briefly entered free agency at the end of his season with the Bucs. At the very least, owner Robert Kraft has requested that the longtime Patriot signs a one-day contract with the team as a farewell. But New England was never a serious contender in what would have been a lucrative sweepstakes for Brady, as the team will likely focus on sharpening young passer Mac Jones in 2023 after a turbulent sophomore year with the team.

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, a former Patriots player and teammate of Brady’s, could also be in search of a new quarterback, as multiple reports during the season suggested that the team was parting ways with Ryan Tannehill. The truth is that Tennessee has more options than nearly any other team in the league to handle its issues at quarterback. The Titans can retain Tannehill, rebuild with 2022 third-round pick Malik Willis, pursue Carr or a free agent, or even trade for a higher draft pick in an effort to secure Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud. Brady’s retirement does not affect their situation.

Regardless of the decision that Tom Brady makes – it appears he won’t be back with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next year.

The future hall-of-fame quarterback is expected to take some time away from the game before making his decision on whether he will return to the NFL for another year, NFL insider Ian Rapoport reports.

But his current Buccaneer teammates are pessimistic he will be back alongside them next year.

“I’d be surprised if he’s back,” one said, according to Rapoport.

And another speculated “He sounded like a person saying goodbye for good.”

The report comes after days of Brady and the Buccaneers getting eliminated and beaten convincingly by the Dallas Cowboys.

While many think the 45-year-old should and will hang up the cleats, what if he does decide to come back again for one last rodeo?

And if not the Buccaneers then who?

if his desire to play the game remains, a reunion with the New England Patriots could very well be at the top of the list.

He after all created most of his memories there and won six super bowls with the organization.

Jeff Howe, insider for The Athletic, noted that it could be a possibility because Patriots Bill Belichick and Brady still have an “abundance” of respect for each other.

Another team who likely be in the market for a quarterback is the New York Jets.

Owner Woody Johnson noted after the season ended and the team failed to score a touchdown in the final three games that the quarterback is the “missing piece,” according to reports.

Johnson said that he is open to spending money on a veteran, although it would probably burn the eyes of Patriots fans if he signed the rival Jets.

But Brady will be looking to join a team that’s ready to win now and needs a quarterback.

Another possibility could be the Pittsburgh Steelers, which missed the playoffs narrowly in 2022.

The team drafted Kenny Picket last year in the first round – but he did not exactly light it up for the team in 2022.

Also, the Baltimore Ravens would be another team to watch if it is unable to find a resolution on a contract agreement with star quarterback Lamar Jackson.

The Ravens made the playoffs and nearly beat the Cincinnati Bengals with Tyler Huntley under center last week.

But if Brady does return, he will likely have his eyes set on another Super Bowl ring and will look for what he feels is the best fit.

He’s “no longer a Buc” – though maybe he wants to be a Net.

One day after stripping shirtless and throwing his equipment into the stands during a third-quarter meltdown in a game against the Jets at MetLife Stadium—and subsequently getting kicked off the team—Antonio Brown left the gridiron for the hardwood and was spotted courtside at the Barclays Center taking in the Nets-Grizzlies game.

The plot thickens, as in August the Nets announced that “individuals age 12 and up will be required to show proof of at least one vaccine dose” to enter the arena starting on September 13.

Brown, of course, was one of three players recently suspended for “misrepresenting their vaccination status under the NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 protocols” when he used a fake vaccination card.

There has not been any further news that Brown has since been vaccinated.

The Bucs haven’t officially released Brown after the scene he caused, but coach Bruce Arians made it clear that Brown won’t be back. There’s been some speculation that the team is only dragging its feet to release him so another playoff contender can’t claim him.

Last night, Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were shut out 9-0 by the New Orleans Saints on Sunday Night Football. It wasn’t just an embarrassing showing for Brady, who committed two turnovers on third-down, but a bad night for the team with injuries. Chris Godwin and Mike Evans were both ruled out by the beginning of the second half.

Injuries to the Bucs’ two best receivers left Brady to rely heavily on tight end Rob Gronkowski, but they were out of sync all night connecting on just two of 11 targets for 29 yards.

“It was big,” coach Bruce Arians said of the injuries. “The young guys, I was hoping they’d step up a little bit more – the receivers. Overall, we just dropped too many balls.”

The team also lost running back Leonard Fournette and linebacker Lavonte David to injuries.

“It hurts more losing all the players we lost,” Arians said. “We lost about seven starters in this game, so I’m more concerned about that right now.”

With three games remaining in the regular season, and if Godwin and Evans aren’t able to return, the team will need some reinforcements. The Bucs will get back veteran receivers Breshad Perriman who had been placed on the reserve/COVID list earlier in the week and Antonio Brown who was serving a three-game suspension for lying to the league about COVID-19 vaccination status.

The team, who going into last night’s game averaged a league-high 31.54 points per game, looks to return to form next Sunday where they’ll look to hold off the Dallas Cowboys for the top seed in the NFC as they take on the Carolina Panthers at 1 p.m.

Byron Kennedy, a Buccaneers’ fan, is receiving royal treatment after giving back the ball that marks Tom Brady‘s 600th career touchdown pass.

On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Chicago Bears with a convincing 38-3 thrashing. The scoreline, while impressive, was not even the second most discussed topic regarding the game. Brady’s touchdown pass, and Kennedy gifting the TD ball back to Brady were the highlights. The 44-year-old threw a nine-yard pass to wide receiver Mike Evens with 10 seconds left in the first quarter and made history. One lucky fan got his hands on the ball but gave it back to Brady without truly considering its worth.

Kennedy was originally promised autographed memorabilia and season tickets in return for giving up the ball. Is that all that ball was worth? Definitely not. It’s likely that in the heat of this joyous moment Kennedy had not realized the gold he possessed within his hands.

Brady appeared on Monday Night Football with the Manning brothers to talk about the moment. “Byron lost all his leverage when he gave up the ball, said Brady jokingly to the two former Super Bowl-winning QBs. “He should have held it,” he quipped.

This ball truly means the world to Brady – he was the first NFL quarterback in history to complete 600 TD passes. In light of Kennedy’s kindness in that moment, Brady has decided to gift Kennedy something special. “I’m also giving him a Bitcoin, so at the end of the day, I think he’s making out pretty well,” Brady said

Here is a final list of gifts awarded for the TD ball: a Bitcoin — worth around $60,000 at the moment — as well jerseys and a helmet signed by Brady, cleats and a jersey signed by Evans and season tickets. The fan that sat next to Kennedy will be kicking himself that he had not competed a little harder to grab that ball.

After his resignation as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, Jon Gruden has now come under fire from former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver, Keyshawn Johnson.

The former NFL player and now current NFL analyst went on ESPN’s morning show Keyshawn, Jwill & Max to speak out on his feelings against his former coach. As Johnson, who was coached by Gruden in 2002 and 2003 when he was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, experienced first hand the real Coach Gruden.

“I didn’t know that Jon would say things like that and put ’em in an email,” Johnson exclaimed. “He’s just always been a fraud to me. He’s just always been a fraud to me. Never, never — from Day 1, he’s been a used-car salesman.”

“And people bought it because he inherited a championship team built by Tony Dungy and Rich McKay [Dungy was the Buccaneers head coach from 1996-01; McKay was the former Buccaneers general manager from 1994-03), and he came in there with a little bit of different energy than we had with Tony and it kind of kicked us over the top to get our world championship — which I am grateful for. But at the same time, I also saw through who he was, through that journey of getting a championship.”

Johnson then recalled the time the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the National Football League championship, and Gruden took away the trophy from then-general manager McKay. “Think about it — we won the championship and we’re standing on the podium in the Super Bowl and the general manager’s trying to raise the trophy and the head coach takes the trophy from him, basically says, ‘Give me this, this belongs to me,” he said.

Johnson then explained why McKay left the Buccaneers. “And then the next year, general manager leaves in the middle of the season, because he doesn’t want to deal with all the shenanigans going on … Rich McKay left in the middle of the season to go take another job with another team because he didn’t want to be around this guy,” he said.

Johnson recalled the way Gruden would talk behind everybody’s back. “And he didn’t know that the players knew, but players are close to assistant coaches,” he said. “Patting you on the back on the practice field and then going inside of the coaches’ offices and film room is shredding you to pieces, and then see you 30 minutes later and act like y’all getting ready to go to dinner.”

After the 2003 season, Johnson was traded to the Dallas Cowboys.

Four-time All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has tested positive for COVID-19, according to NFL sources.

On Wednesday, the 33-year-old Brown was placed on the COVID-19/reserve list. The Buccaneers have had several players test positive for the virus in the past week — Kevin Minter, the captain of special teams, and the practice squad wide receiver, Travis Jonsen. 

A.B. is fully vaccinated, but there are still rules in place restricting him from competing for the time being. According to the NFL’s new coronavirus protocol, players will need two negative test results before they can return to play.

As the Buccaneers (2-0) try to improve on their impressive start to the season, it is possible, but highly unlikely that A.B. will be present in their Sunday showdown with the undefeated Los Angeles Rams. Despite the setback, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians is not worried. “With A.B., we’ve got plenty of guys with a proven track record at that position,” he told reporters.

The clash is set to kick off on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. in L.A.’s SoFi Stadium.

On Monday, former NFL wide receiver Vincent Jackson was found dead in a Florida hotel room, according to the Hillsborough County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office.

Jackson’s body was found at Homewood Suites in Brandon, Florida, at approximately 11:30 a.m. on Monday. Police said there was an open investigation. They also said there were no apparent signs of trauma, and the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of death.

The hotel staff confirmed that Jackson checked into the hotel on January 11 and stayed there since that date. Jackson’s family reported him missing last Wednesday, with a formal report filed Thursday. However, the case was canceled after Jackson’s well-being was confirmed.

“My heart aches for the many loved ones Vincent Jackson leaves behind, from his wife and children to the Buccaneers nation that adored him,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. “Mr. Jackson was a devoted man who put his family and community above everything else.”

“He will be sorely missed by not only football fans across the country but also the people here in Hillsborough County who reaped the benefits of his generous contributions,” Chronister added.

Jackson was the son of military parents and founded the Jackson In Action 83 Foundation, a nonprofit to support military families.

Jackson played a total of 12 seasons in the NFL. The first seven years of his career were spent with the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers said in a statement that Jackson was a, “fan favorite not only for his Pro Bowl play on the field but for the impact he made on the community off of it.”

Jackson last played in the NFL in 2016 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he spent the last five years of his career there.

Buccaneers owner and co-chairman Bryan Glazer said in a statement that Jackson was a “consummate professional,” and even with his accomplishments on the field, “his greatest achievements as a Buccaneer were four consecutive nominations he earned as our Walter Peyton Man of the Year.”

Over the entirety of his career, Jackson recorded 540 catches for 9,080 yards and 57 touchdowns. He was selected to three Pro Bowls.

Houston furniture store owner, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is notoriously known for making giant sports bets. On Wednesday, he placed the largest wager on Super Bowl LV so far, betting $3.46 million to the underdog Tampa Bay Buccaneers at +3.5.

McIngvale made his way to Colorado Springs on Wednesday, where he logged onto the DraftKings mobile sports betting app, and placed one of the largest bets ever on the Super Bowl while he was in the airport.

In a release from DraftKings, McIngvale shared his thoughts, “Tampa Bay is loaded with talent on both sides of the ball and led by the greatest football player of all time in Tom Brady, so I’m betting big on the Bucs who have overcome tough matchups this postseason.

This is not the first time McIngvale has placed a bet of this magnitude. In fact, he had more than $11 million on the table when he bet on the 2019 World Series,which featured the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals.

One of these bets was a $3.5 million features bet on the Astros that he placed via DraftKings as he was in Biloxi, Mississippi. However, the Astros ended up losing to the Nationals in seven games.

“Mack has been a great customer and is someone we have history with after taking his sizeable wager on the World Series a couple seasons ago,” Johnny Avello, DraftKings’ sportsbook director, said in the release.

The two largest bets on the Super Bowl thus far have both been on Tampa Bay. Besides McIngvale’s bet, a bettor with BetMGM in Nevade placed a $2.3 million bet on the Bucs last week.

Super Bowl LV is set, as we now have the two teams that will be competing on February 7 – defending Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Chiefs are led by Pro Bowl quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has been phenomenal throughout the playoffs. So far in the postseason, he completed 70% of his passes, thrown four touchdowns, and zero interceptions. As Mahomes continues to play well, the team does great. In addition, the team has two All-Pro players in wide receiver Tyreek Hill, tight end Travis Kelce and safety Tyrann Mathieu. Both Hill and Kelce are in the top five for receiving yards in the playoffs. Kansas will be relying on a pass-heavy offense.

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The Chiefs defense forced 47% of dropbacks on Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen in the AFC championship game. Kansas could exploit this to put the pressure on Tom Brady. Brady played sloppy as he gave up three interceptions on Sunday. Kansas biggest weakness is their running defense which has not been great this season.

The Buccaneers are led by Brady, who has six Super Bowls under his belt, will be playing in his 10th Super Bowl. The Buccaneers are entering the game on a seven-game win streak. Of those seven, Tampa Bay has scored over 30 points in six games. Tampa Bays’ running offense has been on fire, led by running back Leonard Fournette, who is second in postseason rushing yards with 211. Tampa has been averaging 289 passing yards in the post-season.

Tampa Bay has been effective on defense as they were able to sack Aaron Rodgers multiple times during their Sunday win over the Green Bay Packers. Tampa’s defense is anchored by Devin White, who is the leagues’ postseason leader in sacks with 26. Lavonte David is fourth with 20 tackles. So, the Buccaneers have a good defense that will try to stop Kansas. In addition, Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul are sacking opponent quarterbacks effectively. Barrett leads the postseason by averaging three sacks and Paul is averaging two sacks so far.