Tom Brady’s illustrious NFL career has reached a new crossroads.

Monday night, the ‘GOAT’ suffered one of the worst playoff losses of his 23 professional seasons in what might have been his final game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – if not his final game, period.

In the aftermath of a 31-14 shellacking from the Dallas Cowboys, the league’s most decorated player heads into the offseason with an expiring contract yet seemingly several viable paths forward. But with a humiliating defeat serving as the capstone to his first sub-.500 NFL season, one checkered with professional and personal adversity, Brady wasn’t ready to discuss his future Monday, saying of his mindset, ‘It’s just been one day at a time, truly.”

But he appears to have three primary options, one with a subset of additional choices:

1. Retire … and make more money

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Brady, 45, hung up his cleats briefly last year. He could do it permanently now. 

There are no significant records left to set. He could eat something more scrumptious than avocado ice cream. He could spend more time with his three children, a primary driver for his aborted retirement in 2022. He could live in California – or wherever – year-round, no need to go carpetbagging elsewhere for OTAs, minicamps, training camps and a five-month season. He could devote more attention to his BRADY apparel brand. And then there’s that lead football analyst TV gig with FOX, the one that will pay $375 million over ten years, per multiple reports.

A lot of good reasons to not subject himself to further damage from the likes Nick Bosa, Aaron Donald, Micah Parsons, et al. … to say nothing of the general and inevitable wear and tear the NFL exacts from every player annually – and Brady is generating compound interest on that front.

2. Re-sign with the Bucs

All things considered – football-wise, anyway – three pretty great years in Tampa. TB12 and the Bucs won 37 of 57 games, reached the playoffs in every season, claimed two divisional crowns and, of course, prevailed in Super Bowl 55 as the first club to win the Lombardi Trophy on its home field.

Injuries, the transition away from former coach Bruce Arians and upheaval in Brady’s personal life were key factors in a far less satisfying 2022 campaign, the first time TB12 went one and done during postseason in Tampa. But could the Bucs recapture the magic in 2023? Brady – he’s not subject to the franchise tag this offseason – notwithstanding, the bulk of Tampa’s core players remain under contract. However changes are inevitable given GM Jason Licht needs to shave nearly $44 million, per overthecap.com, to get his roster compliant with this year’s projected $225 million salary cap – which doesn’t include whatever it would cost to re-up Brady.

3. Sign with a new team, perhaps one of these six

Even at Brady’s ridiculously antiquated football age, there will doubtless soon be suitors for his services. Perhaps including:

Las Vegas Raiders: If you believe UFC president Dana White, Brady nearly came to Sin City three years ago. Now? The Silver and Black are punting nine-year starter Derek Carr, a decision that will leave them with roughly $50 million in cap space once Carr’s presumed exit frees up an extra $29 million. That should be more than sufficient to reunite Brady with Josh McDaniels, his longtime offensive coordinator in New England. Plenty of toys, namely All-Pro WR Davante Adams, on this offense – especially if NFL rushing leader Josh Jacobs is franchised and/or re-signed. However, McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler will clearly need to fortify the interior offensive line given TB12’s lack of mobility and need to step up in the pocket. Oh yeah, Nevada’s lack of a state income tax would also give Brady a little extra funny money for the tables.

New England Patriots: Could owner Robert Kraft, HC Bill Belichick and Co. run it back three years after Brady’s largely surprising exit? Stranger things have happened. All parties are well aware of what they accomplished in conjunction – nine Super Bowl appearances and six wins, 17 AFC East crowns, the only undefeated regular season in the past 50 years, countless records and so much more. If Brady wants to go out on top, he knows this organization realizes what’s required. The Patriots also have more than $33 million in rainy day funds.

And yet Brady and McDaniels were in cahoots for TB12’s final eight seasons in Foxborough – he was the offensive coordinator for 11 overall – and Belichick’s set-up in 2022 did incumbent QB Mac Jones no favors (New England is currently searching for an OC). There’s also the question as to whether this team has the requisite firepower to win, RB Rhamondre Stevenson the only Patriot with more than 800 yards from scrimmage in 2022. But the O-line is in good shape, and Brady rarely played with All-Pro wideouts and ball carriers in New England, so …

New York Jets: Would Brady possibly suit up for Belichick’s archenemy? We know TB12 likes living in New York. We know the Jets have better offensive weaponry and, based on 2022, a superior defense. We know NYJ owner Woody Johnson is willing to pay for the quarterback his team needs, and we think the Jets are just a competent passer away from being an AFC powerhouse. What we didn’t know is whether Brady is willing to go full Favre and would embrace the idea of facing the franchise that gilded his legend twice per season, at minimum.

Seattle Seahawks: What they don’t have is newly minted Pro Bowl QB Geno Smith, who’s 13 years younger than Brady, under contract. But if Smith ultimately walks, a team that also lost in the wild-card round will have to weigh its options. That could mean drafting a quarterback with the fifth overall pick obtained from the Denver Broncos in the Russell Wilson blockbuster. Or it could mean earmarking part of their $35 million free agent war chest for a veteran who allows 71-year-old coach Pete Carroll’s team to remain competitive in the near term while enabling it to develop a successor for the long run. Brady wouldn’t have to throw it 60 times a week here yet would surely enjoy having WRs DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett at his disposal. And aside from the Raiders, this could be his only other realistic option to return to the West Coast.

Tennessee Titans: They don’t have cap space, and they don’t have top-shelf receivers. However, they do play in a winnable division and need to do something to recapture momentum from the fan base with a new Nashville stadium on the horizon. The Titans also have a coach, Mike Vrabel, who’s a former teammate of Brady’s and now a good friend. TB12 would likely fit seamlessly into this culture and probably wouldn’t mind resting his arm just a bit and handing off more frequently to that Derrick Henry guy – a stud who would also make it easier to find open guys downfield than what Brady dealt with in 2022.

Washington Commanders: Team Turmoil could be on the verge of another tumultuous offseason – though this time, that could actually mean a sale and change of ownership. However, if that occurs, it won’t be overnight, and a guy mulling a 24th NFL season likely doesn’t want his next boss to be an unknown variable (though just about anyone west of Putin is an upgrade over the current variable). On the football side, Washington does have a respected coach, young and capable offensive playmakers and a propensity – as of now anyway – to overspend on veterans with loaded NFL résumés. Just sayin’, don’t discount the possibility … especially if Brady’s options to keep playing begin to dwindle.

***

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis.

The crash that killed Georgia football player Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy early Sunday in Athens came after the 2021 Ford Expedition failed to negotiate a left curve, striking a curb with its front passenger tire, leaving Barnett Shoals Road and ultimately coming up against an apartment unit, according to a crash report released by Athens-Clarke County police Tuesday afternoon.

The Georgia Motor Vehicle Crash Report determined that excessive speed was a contributing factor in the crash. The posted speed was 40 miles per hour. The investigation is ongoing.

ACC police Lt. Shaun Barnett said that investigation will determine more precise speed from vehicle data and reconstructing the accident scene.

LeCroy was the driver of the vehicle traveling southbound on Barnett Shoals Road prior to Stroud Road when the vehicle left the roadway, striking a Georgia Power pole and another utility pole, cutting them in half, according to the crash report.

The vehicle continued south on the shoulder, striking a tree with its rear passenger quarter panel which caused it to rotate clockwise before it struck another tree with it’s driver’s side. That caused the Expedition to rotate counterclockwise before it rested against the unit at Shoal Creek Apartments.

A parked 2017 Ford transit van at the apartment facing northbound was struck on top of the vehicle. The owner was notified.

Police arrived to the crash scene at 2:55 a.m. Sunday at 930 Barnett Shoals Road, 7 minutes after dispatch and 10 minutes after the estimated crash time, according to the report.

Willock, from New Milford, N.J., was a third-year offensive guard who started two games during the 2022 national championship season. LeCroy was a football recruiting staffer from Toccoa.

Willock, 20, sat in the driver’s side rear passenger seat. He was ejected from the vehicle, according to the report and died at the scene. LeCroy, 24, was extricated from the vehicle and taken by ESM to Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Two others with the football program sustained injuries in the crash.

Georgia offensive tackle Warren McClendon, 21, who was seated in the passenger front seat, needed a couple of stitches on his forehead, according to his father. He was transported to the hospital. McClendon had declared for the NFL draft Saturday afternoon.

Another recruiting staffer, Victoria “Tory” Bowles, 26, was the rear seat passenger was hospitalized with serious injuries and was in stable condition, according to Prince Avenue Christian School where she graduated from. She was also taken to Piedmont Athens Regional.

Willock and Bowles were not wearing seat belts, according to the report.

The crash occurred hours after Georgia football celebrated its second straight national championship Saturday with a parade and stadium event.

Over the last few years, the world has gotten to know more of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers than at the beginning of his NFL career.

Love it or hate it, Rodgers has become more of an open book – and we don’t mean just with his recommendations through the ‘Aaron Rodgers Book Club’ during his appearances on ‘The Pat McAfee Show.’

A lot of his freeness and new mindset, he says, comes down to a question the 39-year-old pondered more lately.

‘Who am I outside of the number 12 you see on the field?’ Rodgers said from his California home Tuesday on McAfee’s show, his go-to outlet every week during the NFL season the last three years.

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And what has helped him in getting an answer?

‘Applied medicine has allowed me to see clearly,’ Rodgers said as he chatted with McAfee for a final time following the 2022 season, while mostly discussing his NFL future throughout the hour.

Rodgers could partake in ayahuasca ritual again after deciding whether he’ll play in 2023

Rodgers, of course, is referring to ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic, that he turned to for helping his mental state. Before this past season while making the podcast rounds, he credited ayahuasca for his MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021. He failed to meet those standards in 2022, though he told McAfee on Tuesday he feels like he can be an MVP player in the right situation. Hallucinogens have no accepted medical uses in the U.S.

Rodgers, who called himself a ‘hippie’ on Tuesday, has said in the past that he will likely be called again to use ayahuasca, which he does in Peru, since the drug is banned in the U.S. But Packers fans should have an answer about the 2023 season before he takes part in another ayahuasca ritual, he said.

‘There won’t be another sitting and ceremony before the decision, I can tell you that,’ Rodgers said, laughing. ‘Perhaps after.’

Personal and professional experiences led to Aaron Rodgers’ new outlook on life

He said a number of personal and professional experiences ‘triggered’ this response. It started in 2017 after Rodgers broke his collarbone early in the season, where for the first time, he ‘felt the separation from the team.’

‘There was some deep contemplation,’ Rodgers said, leading him to ask himself ‘who am I without football, who am I without the game?’ Another injury followed during a tumultuous 2018 season. Rodgers said his calling toward ‘applied medicine,’ as he called it, has led him to look at the world differently to find ‘balance and contentment without football being the identity’ of his life.

‘I’ve done a lot of work to make that transition (after football) easier,’ said Rodgers, who just finished his 18th NFL season. ‘Thankful for those lessons, learning more about myself about who I am outside of number 12 for the Green Bay Packers.’

Aaron Rodgers in pondering retirement and his post-NFL interests: ‘a lot of other things’ take his time

Rodgers added his new approach to life and career has allowed him to do ‘things my own way,’ and show ‘different sides of my personality highlighting that I’m not just a robotic, repeating one track single-minded, zero-balanced athlete.’

Rodgers said he still finds ‘a lot of joy and contentment’ in football but he believes he’s set himself up for his post-NFL life.

‘I’m also interested in a lot of other things,’ Rodgers said. ‘A lot of other things take my time. Although you might not ever fill that big competitive hole completely. Like I said, at some point the carousel stops and it’s time to get off. … you have to be ready for that.’

Aaron Rodgers says ‘it pays to be immunized’ when discussing COVID again with Pat McAfee

A week after his season ended short of the playoffs, Rodgers said he mostly avoided any major issues in 2022, though he fought through a broken finger he suffered against the New York Giants in London.

Then Rodgers sarcastically went back to one of his go-to topics in recent years: COVID-19.

‘I avoided some of the major issues like COVID toe and some other stuff,’ Rodgers said with a grin. ‘After I went through the winter of death and survived, everything since then has been easy. I’m really thankful. Who can say they have won MVP of COVID? We had two years of COVID, and that’s the years I was MVP and I dealt with COVID toe and I’m a COVID survivor. I guess it pays to be immunized.’

Rodgers made waves for implying he was vaccinated against COVID-19 during the 2021 season by saying he was ‘immunized.’ Rodgers, of course, was not vaccinated against COVID, later contracted the virus during the season and had to miss a game, while losing a sponsor along the way for promoting the unproven treatment of ivermectin.

Jamin Pugh, a professional wrestler who competed in the Ring of Honor for two decades under the stage name Jay Briscoe, died in a car accident on Tuesday. He was 38.

According to the Delaware State Police, Briscoe was traveling eastbound in a 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 in Laurel, Delaware, when a pickup truck traveling in the opposite direction swerved into his lane for ‘unknown reasons’ and struck his vehicle head-on. Briscoe and the other driver, 27-year-old Lillyanne Ternahan, were both pronounced dead at the scene. 

Briscoe’s 9-year-old daughter and 12-year-old daughter were in the car with him during the collision. Although he was not wearing a seat belt, his daughters were properly restrained. The two girls were hospitalized and remain in critical condition. 

Officers said it’s unknown at this time if alcohol was involved. An investigation into the incident is underway.

All Elite Wrestling owner and CEO Tony Khan, who purchased Ring of Honor wrestling in March 2022, announced Briscoe’s death in a statement shared on Twitter on Tuesday. 

Remembering those we lost: Celebrity Deaths 2023

‘Sadly, Jamin Pugh has passed away. Known to fans as Jay Briscoe, he was a star in ROH for over 20 years, from the first show until today,’ Khan wrote. ‘Jay and his brother Mark dominated ROH, reigning as champions to this day. We’ll do whatever we can to support his family. Rest In Peace Jamin.’

Briscoe joined ROH wrestling in 2002 alongside his brother Mark, forming the  successful tag team duo known as ‘The Briscoe Brothers.’ Briscoe, who was 18 at the time, and Mark, who was 17, have competed since the company’s first ever show.

‘It is with a heavy heart that we mourn the tragic passing of Jamin Pugh, known to wrestling fans around the world as Jay Briscoe,’ All Elite Wrestling wrote in a statement. ‘Our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and his fans.’

The Briscoe Brothers are considered the greatest tag team duo in ROH history. The Briscoe Brothers held the ROH World Tag Team Championship title a record 13 times for a combined 1,413 days. They recently won the tag team title back in December in a Double Dog Collar match against FTR’s Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood. 

‘I’ve been in tears since I heard the news. I just don’t have the words. Rest in Peace Jay,’ Wheeler tweeted on Tuesday evening. Harwood shared a photo of The Briscoe Brothers and FTR sharing a drink in the locker room together: ‘I love you, Jay.’

Tributes continued to pour in from the wrestling community. 

Paul ‘ Triple H’ Levesque described Briscoe on Twitter as ‘an incredible performer who created a deep connection with wrestling fans across the globe.’

Matt Hardy said he’s ‘DEVASTATED that Jay Briscoe (Jamin Pugh) tragically died today.’

‘I was honored to work with him many times,’ Hardy tweeted. ‘I loved Jay. Jay was SO real. Jay loved his wife & kids more than anything & we shared that bond. I’m heartbroken for his family.’

Briscoe and his brother Mark were inducted into the inaugural class of the ROH Hall of Fame last year.

‘The Briscoes are not solely defined by their impressive championship resume, however. They have been the heart and soul of ROH and emblematic of the company’s standard of excellence inside the squared circle,’ ROH said of the duo in their HOF induction. ‘Whether they were wrestling in front of a couple hundred fans at a rec center or a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden, Jay and Mark Briscoe sacrificed their bodies and gave everything they had to ensure the fans got their money’s worth.’

As the NFL playoffs march on following a thrilling wild card weekend, one of the biggest storylines continues to be the rapid ascension of current San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.

The former Iowa State standout kept his winning ways going with Saturday’s 41-23 win over the Seattle Seahawks, in what was his first career playoff start. Purdy has guided San Francisco to seven consecutive victories since taking over the starting role for the injured Jimmy Garoppolo on Dec. 4.

Purdy’s next test, though, will be his toughest yet. The 49ers will host the Dallas Cowboys at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in the divisional round, with the winner advancing to the NFC Championship Game to face either the New York Giants or Philadelphia Eagles.

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Purdy’s wins have come against the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Las Vegas Raiders, Arizona Cardinals and two against the Seattle Seahawks. The only playoff teams from that group – Miami, Seattle and Tampa Bay – all lost this past weekend. The Cowboys’ defense has been solid all year, meaning Purdy will need to deliver another strong performance if the 49ers are to remain alive.

In preparation for Saturday’s game, here is what the NFL media, football analysts and others are saying about Purdy’s late-season rise.

Is Brock Purdy the 49ers’ long-term option at QB after this season?

That’s what Tim Kawakami thinks.

The veteran Bay Area columnist, who’s now the editor-in-chief of The Athletic’s Bay Area coverage, wrote Sunday that Purdy should be the QB1 in San Francisco after this season. That’s quite the declaration considering Purdy hadn’t taken an NFL snap until early December.

But remember, the 49ers had plenty of quarterback uncertainty before this campaign began. Trey Lance, the 49ers’ first-round pick in 2021, was named the starter in training camp over Garoppolo, who signed a one-year deal late in the preseason to stay with San Francisco. That looked to be the hierarchy until Lance suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2, making Garoppolo the starter until he got hurt.

Garoppolo’s time with San Francisco has been a turbulent one, and Lance’s ability to stay on the field and develop at the rate a first-rounder is expected to has been slowed. All that opens the door for Purdy, who’s shown plenty this last month and could very well lead San Francisco to the Super Bowl.

Just how good was Brock Purdy’s first NFL playoff start?

That’s what The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen answers here.

The box score looks quite nice for Purdy: 18-for-30 for 332 yards and three passing touchdowns, to go with four carries for 16 yards and a ground score. No interceptions, no fumbles. The passing yardage was the highest of Purdy’s brief career.

At the same time, you can’t ignore that Purdy was inserted into the perfect scenario for a rookie quarterback asked to perform immediately at a high level.

Christian McCaffery is maybe the most versatile running back in the league, while George Kittle is among the most dynamic safety blankets at tight end. Having 1,000-yard receiver Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel to work with doesn’t hurt, either.

That’s what Nguyen dives into – that Purdy is shining beyond belief, but has plenty of help in doing so. Purdy will likely need all that help and then some to keep San Francisco rolling through the playoffs.

Is Brock Purdy already among the next wave of solid young QBs?

That’s what USA TODAY’s Nancy Armour believes.

In a wild card weekend that possibly included Tom Brady’s final NFL game, it’s fitting that several young quarterbacks led teams to playoff victories alongside. Purdy was right in the middle of that group.

At the beginning of this year, no one would’ve included Purdy with the likes of Trevor Lawrence, Daniel Jones and other young QBs making significant splashes. But here we are, with the three names mentioned all securing playoff victories over the weekend.

We’ll see what Purdy has in store next.

Other interesting looks at Brock Purdy’s incredible run

Some of these were published before the playoffs started. Others were written in response to Saturday’s win.

NFL.com: NFL stats and records, Super Wild Card Weekend: Brock Purdy sets rookie playoff record with four TDsFiveThirtyEight:Brock Purdy Was Mr. Irrelevant. Now He’s Mr. Impossible.FoxSports: Brock Purdy leads 49ers’ offensive explosion. What can he do for an encore in playoffs?SF Chronicle: 49ers’ game review: What happened in the worst half of Brock Purdy’s NFL career?NBC Sports: Brock Purdy’s playoff jitters, emotions show 49ers rookie’s love for football

What are the NFL playoff betting odds for Brock Purdy and the 49ers?

If you feel like trying to cash in on Purdy’s surge, here are a few options.

For starters, Purdy and San Francisco are 4-point favorites and -200 on the moneyline ($20 bet wins you $10) Sunday against Dallas, according to Tipico Sportsbook.

On DraftKings, Purdy and the 49ers are +175 to win the NFC ($10 bet wins you $17.50) and +450 to win the Super Bowl ($10 bet wins you $45). Purdy is +750 to win Super Bowl MVP ($10 bet wins you $75).

Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.

Back in college, they called Ran Carthon “The Mayor.”

Seemed like he knew everybody.

That’s what former University of Florida teammate Ingle Martin remembers about the Tennessee Titans’ new general manager.

“He’s got a very magnetic personality. He gets people,” said Martin, a former NFL quarterback who is now head coach and athletics director at Nashville’s Christ Presbyterian Academy. “… As easily as he’s a GM, he could be running a Fortune 500 company. He was one of those guys that was going to be in a leadership role in whatever avenue he decided to pursue.

“Ran has a gift of just being able to connect with people.”

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On Tuesday night, news leaked that the Titans had selected Carthon, the director of player personnel for the San Francisco 49ers, as their new GM. The Titans announced it Wednesday morning, ending team owner Amy Adams Strunk’s search to replace Jon Robinson.

‘I was impressed with his natural leadership qualities and his ability to connect with people,’ Adams Strunk said. ‘With talent evaluation being critical to this role, the roster they have built in San Francisco stands out.’

At first glance, I liked the hire.

For a lot of reasons.

NFL PLAYOFFS UPSET ALERT: Ranking top four seeds based on who should worry most in divisional round

From the start, Carthon checks a lot of boxes. He’s the first minority GM or head coach in Titans history. He’s a long-time NFL front-office man and a football lifer whose father was a player and coach. He worked under two successful GMs in Les Snead – last season’s Super Bowl winner – and John Lynch, helping build what might be the NFL’s best and deepest roster in the 49ers.

I’ll admit I don’t know much else yet about Carthon. That, however, might be what I liked most about his hire.

I liked that the Titans weren’t afraid to go outside their comfort zone. They interviewed two internal candidates, including interim GM Ryan Cowden, and instead opted for a fresh direction and perspective after backsliding in 2022. Carthon represents a clear and needed step away from the stern-faced New England Patriots playbook to success that Robinson – and to a lesser extent, coach Mike Vrabel – embodied with the Titans.

I liked, too, that the hire wasn’t Vrabel. Not that the coach’s hand wasn’t evident in the decision to hire a former player as the new GM.

We’ll get to that in a minute.

First, more good stuff about the new guy:

‘One of the most fun teammates I’ve ever had,” Martin said. “Just a great teammate, great to be around. One of the guys that you could tell loved the team aspect.’

OK, who does that sound like?

Vrabel. Go ask former teammates and coaches, and they’ll say the same sort of thing about the Titans’ coach. It could make Carthon a uniquely ideal fit for this job, considering its top objective: Working alongside the Titans’ coach.

Not my words. That’s what the Titans’ owner has said.

No matter who was the GM, Vrabel’s having a larger say in personnel matters has seemed like a given in this post-Robinson era. Also obvious is that there was clearly discord along the way between Vrabel and Robinson.

The clear implication was Vrabel and the new GM would be on equal footing, and some GMs might recoil at a setup in which they could be easily overruled on major decisions.

And there are plenty of tough decisions to be made before next season. Carthon inherits a franchise in decline, with a bruised and depleted roster that’ll need a reset, if not a total rebuild. You can see help-wanted signs at wide receiver, maybe left tackle and center, cornerback and elsewhere. There might be even bigger fish to fry at quarterback or running back once the Titans start shifting away from the ground-and-pound approach of leaning heavily on an aging Derrick Henry.

The Titans needed a lot in this hire. They needed new ideas and a new identity. They also needed a GM personable and adept at selling that new vision in a building that had grown too comfortable with the way things had been.

They may have found that someone, sounds like.

“I’m really excited for the Titans,” Martin said. “I think they are getting a great guy.”

Five-star quarterback Jaden Rashada has asked out of his letter of intent at Florida, a source confirmed to the Gainesville Sun on Tuesday night.

That increases the likelihood that Rashada won’t play in a Florida uniform this season, if ever. Rashada filed paperwork on Tuesday requesting his release and Florida has up to 30 days to respond to his request.

Florida has typically granted LOI releases in the past during coaching changes. In 2015, Florida granted a release for forward Noah Dickerson when Billy Donovan left and was replaced by Mike White. Dickerson ended up at Washington.

If released, Rashada could sign with another school during the February signing period or later to register for the summer.

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The decision by Rashada and his family puts an end to a saga that put name, imagine and likeness deals into the national spotlight – but not in a good way. According to several reports, Rashada’s desire to leave is the result of a botched NIL deal involving the Gator Collective that may have totaled as much as $13 million when initially agreed upon.

Earlier this month, at the Under Armour All-American game in Orlando, Florida, Rashada said he intended to move to Gainesville the first weekend in January and enroll at Florida. His goal was not just to learn the playbook, but take advantage of Florida’s strength and conditioning program to add 25 pounds to his 6-foot-4, 175-pound frame.

But instead of going to Gainesville, Rashada returned to his native Pittsburg, California. He didn’t enroll the first day of the spring semester on Jan. 11 and missed last Friday’s drop-add deadline to enroll for the spring semester that would have made him eligible to participate in spring football.

It was another in a sea of red flags for Rashada, who was the last committed player to sign his NIL last December, delaying the start of head coach Billy Napier’s signing day press conference by close to an hour. Rashada was initially committed to Miami before flipping to Florida the second weekend of November and was in the stands for Florida’s 38-6 win over South Carolina at The Swamp.

Rashada was the highest-ranked player in Florida’s 2023 class, a four/five-star recruit ranked 56th nationally and seventh among quarterbacks per 247Sports composite.

Without him, Florida’s quarterback room is left with Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz, redshirt sophomore (and former Ohio State transfer) Jack Miller and sophomore Max Brown. The decision also will likely drop the overall ranking of Florida’s 2023 class, which had been ranked 12th overall nationally and fifth in the SEC.

The Gators could go back to the portal to find a fourth scholarship quarterback. Florida has reportedly reached out to LSU redshirt freshman quarterback Will Howard, a former Top 60 national recruit who also has drawn interest from Ole Miss and TCU.