This is another great point that I failed to bring up in my post.
There are only two seemingly plausible scenarios as to why they wouldn't give up Jimmy, before a contract year, for the kind of hauls they likely could have gotten for him at the draft:
1) Brady's told them he's done after this year or next year (and after this year they just franchise Jimmy then extend him when he takes over).
2) They plan to give Brady 1-2 more years before moving onto Jimmy no matter what Brady thinks, and if Brady doesn't retire they consider trading him and fleecing some other quasi-contending team (maybe the Niners at that point, two years down the road) of a 1st round pick or two.
I understand that people want to believe Brady will completely dictate how his own career ends and whether that's with or without serving as QB of the NEP. But there's simply no track record of the team considering monopolizing itself to satisfy the wishes of any one player. Also, regardless of what Kraft says, if there's an even remote chance of the team tanking for a decade because they lose their future QB in JG, he'll consider his bottom line far, far before Brady's emotions, and painfully approve of doing what's in the best longterm interest of the team.
...because if comes down to it, the team will 100% do what's in its own best interest over what's in Brady's best interest or any one person's best interest. You've already seen the first couple of dominos fall given the inaction on JG during this past year's draft. My hunch is Brady himself wouldn't even want to receive special treatment; that's the kind of man and player he's always been.
I bet Brady almost revels in the idea of "If someone else is the better option (for whatever reason), take me off the field," and falling in line the same way every other player he's ever played with fell in line. I genuinely don't think he wants special consideration...ever. He doesn't want to be treated any differently than Bruschi, Vrabel, Branch, Brown, Wilfork, Nink, Milloy, etc. He respects those guys too much. He's either the best option for the NEP, or he isn't. He understands how this works and I think he fully embraces it, because that's who Tom Brady is as a person.
