Report: Damiere Byrd Agrees to Contract with Patriots After Tom Brady Departure

The end of an era officially came Tuesday when Tom Brady announced that he would be moving on after 20 seasons with the New England Patriots.  

The Pats must now march forward as they look to make the playoffs for the 18th time in 20 campaigns. They started the post-Brady era with the acquisition of wideout Damiere Byrd on a one-year deal, per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.

Byrd caught 32 passes for 359 yards and one touchdown on 46 targets in 11 games last season.

The four-year veteran played three years with the Carolina Panthers before moving to the Arizona Cardinals last season. The 27-year-old largely excelled on special teams with the Panthers, notably taking a 103-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in 2017. The 5'9", 180-pound wideout is an option as a return man if the Pats decide to go that route.

From a macro perspective, however, the move comes in the midst of much uncertainty in the Patriots' offensive skill-position core.

First, it's unclear who will throw Byrd the ball in 2020. The Patriots' second-string quarterback is second-year pro Jarrett Stidham, who New England selected out of Auburn in the fourth round of the 2019 draft. He went 2-for-4 for 14 yards, including a pick-six against the New York Jets.

Stidham could develop into a starter and showed potential in the preseason (67.8 percent completion rate), but it may be hard for the Pats to hand him the keys to the franchise right now.

The Pats can opt to land a signal-caller in a draft that could feature at least four quarterbacks in the first round: LSU's Joe Burrow, Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa, Oregon's Justin Herbert and Utah State's Jordan Love. All four are in the top 30 of Matt Miller's 2020 draft big board for Bleacher Report right now, although the Pats may need to trade up from their current first-round spot at No. 23 overall.

Otherwise, the Patriots can look to land a veteran via free agency (ex-Tampa Bay Buccaneers signal-caller Jameis Winston is the biggest name available) or trade (Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton is available).

Running back appears to be set with the three-headed monster of James White, Sony Michel and Rex Burkhead under contract, but the wideout crew as a whole had inconsistent production last season even with Brady behind center and Julian Edelman providing him a security blanket. The future there is unclear.

Byrd appears to be part of the Pats' pass-catching core at any rate. But the question now is where the Pats will go from here with Brady now joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, per ESPN's Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington.