“I would have thought that would have been toward training camp” - NFL analyst surprised by how early Tom Brady came out of retirement 

As soon as Tom Brady retired, NFL analysts immediately came out of the woodwork saying they expected him to return. However, most, including sports journalist Bomani Jones, assumed he would announce his return over the summer.

Speaking on ESPN's First Take, Jones admitted to being surprised just how quickly the quarterback took a U-turn on his retirement. He said:

“I think I was more surprised about the 40 days later part than the unretire part. I could totally see unretiring. But I would have thought that would have been toward training camp, right? Like we watched Brett Favre do it, and it would be like, ‘Oh, it's time to get back. You start to get anxious.’ And you're like, ‘Okay, I'm going to do that.’"

Continuing, Jones thinks the length of retirement is tied to the circumstances that led him to retire:

"Normally, when cats make a move like Brady did, it's like a couple of years before they were a little tired of it. And then they, you know, came back around and are like ‘okay, I'll go to training camp.’ I thought it would be much later if he made a move like that. And that's why I look at this kind of curious as to what went to the initial decision and where we got to at this point."

Jones added a bit of speculation as to why Brady returned now:

"Is he just kind of betting like ‘look, if I am going to come back, I probably need to do it now so that the Bucs will know what they can do so they don't go draft a quarterback or come up with some other plan. Like, let me make sure I got my spot while my spot while my spot is still there.’”

Why did Tom Brady retire?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Carolina Panthers

According to Jones, retired players that do return to the NFL tend to do so after an extended absence. Tight end Jason Witten missed an entire season. So did tight end Rob Gronkowski. Eric Weddle missed most of 2021 before returning for one last run with the Los Angeles Rams. However, Brady didn't miss a single snap.

It makes one wonder if Brady orchestrated his "retirement" to create a new frontier for himself. If he wins the Super Bowl again, he would be the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl as a once-retired quarterback. Of course, as Jones did on First Take, NFL analysts can only guess without a tell-all from the quarterback himself.