Tom Brady is a "good bet" to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame at the first time of asking, though he will still have to wait five years.
Brady called time on his playing career on Wednesday, a year on from retiring for the first time.
While that stint out of the game only lasted 40 days, the legendary quarterback – a seven-time Super Bowl champion – said he was retiring "for good" this time around.
Brady is sure to go down as one of the greatest athletes of all time, though that does not mean he will be able to skip any queue in order to become a Hall of Famer.
Indeed, while Hall of Fame chief communications officer Rich Desrosiers believes Brady will make it into the Hall of Fame on his first ballot, the earliest that will come will be 2028.
"Even Tom Brady has to wait, even Peyton Manning had to wait," Desrosiers told Stats Perform when asked if Brady could be fast-tracked into the Hall of Fame.
"There's some others that we can assume will be or would have been first ballot types of people – Peyton Manning, one that I mentioned, this same conversation came up with him.
"You've got a couple of guys out there whose clocks are running: a Larry Fitzgerald, let's say a Drew Brees.
"I think many people assume they'd be first-ballot guys. It's just something the hall doesn't want to do, because then you've created a precedent, you've established a line, and who's making that determination?
"It's also unfair to the people who are queued up right now to be part of the class of 2024. If Tom were to have the five-year mandatory waiting period waived, then he's really knocking someone else out of the class of 2024, who has been waiting to get in, and we have many players who are on their second, third, fourth, fifth, even 10th year of eligibility.
"[If] all of a sudden, you're just saying, 'we're going to let somebody jump that line', you've displaced somebody else who's gone through the process. So it's not going to happen."
Asked if Brady will be into the Hall of Fame as soon as he can, Desrosiers said: "I would think so. Right now, we have 49 selectors.
"These are 49 mostly active journalists from around the country. They meet and consider the candidacies and each person who's up for election has a presenter who presents the case for the person under consideration.
"The debate might last five minutes 10 minutes, 20. There's been debates on candidates that have gone into 25-30 minute range when you really are starting to weigh this person against that person in the past, and I think it may have started with Brett Farve – Brett's presenter stood up and said two words – 'Brett Farve' and sat back down.
"It happened again with Peyton Manning, and I'm pretty sure that whoever is the presenter for Tom Brady will take a similar approach. They'll just say, 'Tom Brady', sit down.
"Nothing can ever be assumed. But it's probably a pretty good bet."
On Brady's illustrious career, Desrosiers added: "There's people far more talented than I am in debating those things. We'll let them debate that but it's hard to argue with seven Super Bowl championships, five Super Bowl MVPs, he's virtually passing every record, whatever number you want to throw out there.
"He's at the top or near the top of every offensive statistical category there is and a winner, and the longevity – there's plenty of boxes, you can check on the side of the ledger that says greatest of all time for sure."
Three-time Super Bowl champion Hightower retires from NFL
Former New England Patriots linebacker D'Onta Hightower has retired from the NFL.
A first-round pick in the 2012 draft out of Alabama, Hightower spent his entire career with the Patriots, playing a pivotal role in three Super Bowl championships.
After helping the Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX at the end of the 2014 season, bringing down Marshawn Lynch short of the endzone on the play prior to Malcolm Butler's game-winning interception, Hightower made a key contribution in their remarkable comeback against the Atlanta Falcons two years later.
His strip sack of Matt Ryan in the fourth quarter gave the Patriots the ball deep in Falcons' territory, allowing New England to cut it to a one-score game as they incredibly fought back from 28-3 down to prevail in Super Bowl LI.
Hightower also capped the 2018 season with a title, the Patriots' defense holding the Los Angeles Rams to a field goal in a 13-3 success in Super Bowl LIII having lost a thriller to the Philadelphia Eagles a year earlier.
A two-time Pro Bowler, Hightower did not play in the 2022 season after his contract expired.
Hightower wrote in an article for the Players' Tribune: "Today, I am officially retiring from the NFL. I know these announcements always feel bittersweet, but I can't think of a better story than the one I wrote in New England. A decade, three Super Bowls, two Pro Bowls, and the birth of my son — all playing for one franchise. How many guys have a story like that?
"So this is a happy day for me, and I just wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate you embracing a Southern kid from Lewisburg, Tennessee.
"I appreciate everyone who helped me make this dream come true. But I especially want to thank my mom. None of this happens without her. Now that I got my own 40-pound two-year-old running around the house like a little wrecking ball, I don’t know how you held it down for us all by yourself.
"I just want to say thank you for helping me live my dream.
"To you, to my beautiful wife, Morgan, to all my coaches, my team-mates, my mentors, my teachers, my friends, my entire family, and to all the fans at Bama and New England....
"Thank you. Just, thank you. I wouldn’t rewrite a single chapter of this story."
Panthers head coach Reich says height will not rule out Young from top draft pick
The Carolina Panthers are taking their time to evaluate their options after trading up for the NFL Draft's number one pick but new head coach Frank Reich says height will not play a major role.
Reich was officially unveiled by the Panthers on Monday having been appointed in late January, after Matt Ruhle was fired five games into the 2022 season which ended with a 7-10 campaign.
The Panthers since traded up for the number one pick, giving up several picks including their first and second-rounders in this year's draft along with wide receiver D.J. Moore as they look to access the best available quarterback to help resolve their offensive issues.
Alabama's Bryce Young is viewed as the best quarterback prospect in the upcoming NFL Draft, along with Ohio State's C.J. Stroud, Florida's Anthony Richardson and Kentucky's Will Levis.
But Young's height, at 5-foot-10, is seen as his biggest drawback and Reich has a history with taller quarterbacks.
"Don't read anything into it,'' Reich told reporters. "I'm just saying that because all these people are putting this label on me that I only look at big quarterbacks.
"We're, first and foremost, just looking for playmakers. You look at everything. Every trait that a guy has, and you weigh it. Right? You weigh it.
"The thing is – if there’s 10 categories that you look at in a quarterback, or any player for that matter, the real question is not how to evaluate each of those categories. A big part of the question is how much are you going to weigh each of those categories.
"So, everything’s a factor. But, ultimately, it really comes down to being a playmaker. Being a guy who can make plays all over the field and that happens a lot of different ways."
When asked about which categories he viewed most importantly, Reich laughed: "That'd be like giving the proprietary formula for Kentucky Fried Chicken."
Reich added that the evaluation process was ongoing, with the Panthers having nothing to hide given their position in the draft, scheduled for April 27.
"When you have the number one pick you don't have to play games, right?" Reich said. "It's not like we're trying to fool anybody. What we're trying to do is take all the time we can on the evaluation.
"There's a lot of conviction, as [general manager] Scott [Fitterer] said, on some of these top quarterbacks. The old adage, 'don't make a decision before you have to' – we're going to take every second every day, or every hour every day, to make this decision. And we've still got plenty of time left."
Reich hailed Fitterer for trading up to get the top pick, stating their previous first pick at nine was a "hard spot" given their resolution to solve their QB issues of the past few years.
"Is there more pressure with that? I guess so," Reich said. "But I don't feel it like that. I feel more freedom. We can actually get the guy that we want. We can take the time. We're in the driver's seat."
Texans sign Schultz and Singletary
The Houston Texans are still over a month away from picking their quarterback of the future, but they are continuing to build around him.
On Monday, the Texans added a starting tight end to their roster, signing Dalton Schultz to a one-year deal worth up to $9million, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.
Schultz did not have the market he might have anticipated after his contract with the Dallas Cowboys expired, but he will have the chance to cash in next offseason if he can thrive in Houston playing with the quarterback whom the Texans will almost certainly select with the second overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Last season, Schultz finished with 577 receiving yards and five touchdowns, having racked up 808 yards and eight touchdowns in 2021.
His 13 receiving touchdowns over the last two seasons rank fifth among tight ends.
Houston also added to their backfield, signing former Buffalo Bills running back Devin Singletary.
Singletary is unlikely to be the starter following the emergence of Dameon Pierce, who had 939 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground as a rookie.
Also arriving on a one-year deal, according to multiple reports, Singletary gives the Texans versatile depth at running back.
He has produced over 1,000 yards from scrimmage in each of the last two seasons. In 2022, he finished with 819 yards rushing and five touchdowns, as well as 280 yards receiving and a further touchdown through the air.
Singletary has 2,197 scrimmage yards since 2021, putting him 20th among running backs across that span.
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