Robert Kraft would be 'quite surprised' if Tom Brady wasn't Patriots' QB for 'quite a while'

Brady indicated earlier this week that there is zero chance he retires at the end of this season

In the past, Tom Brady has made it clear he wants to keep playing football until he is 45 years old. 

Brady, who is 41, stated earlier this week that he can't see himself retiring this year, next year, or the year after that. That timeline would take him through at least his age-43 season. Brady said that offseason that he had received permission from his wife to play at least two more seasons, which would have taken him to age 42. That's apparently been extended an additional year. So even though he admitted earlier this season that he can see the "end of the line" for his career, there's "zero" chance it's happening any time soon.

And Brady's not the only one who thinks he'll be around for a while longer. Patriots owner Robert Kraft is convinced the Pats will have Brady on their team for the foreseeable future. 

"Well, think about it, the last three years we've been privileged to go to the Super Bowl with a quarterback in place," Kraft said, per the Providence Journal. "I would be quite surprised if he didn't continue for quite a while as our quarterback."

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There was a lot of speculation last offseason that the Patriots would move up in the draft to grab Brady's eventually successor, be it Baker Mayfield or Lamar Jackson or somebody else. Of course, that did not happen. Instead, the Patriots treated the 2018 draft like any other, and the only quarterback they picked was Danny Etling in the seventh round. 

That's classic Bill Belichick, who always does things his way, no matter what. Kraft knows how fortunate the Patriots have been to have Belichick making these types of decisions for them. "He and having the head coach that we have, and having Tom, there's a unique symmetry there and chemistry and it carries over to the whole organization," Kraft said. "I think we're very lucky."

If Brady's going to stick around a while longer, then it stands to reason that Belichick will do the same. And that means the Pats aren't going anywhere anytime soon.