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Father Time continues to gain on Tom Brady, but Tom Brady continues to be undeterred.

Brady recently told Jim Gray of Westwood One that Brady plans to play in 2019.

“I absolutely believe I will,” Brady said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. “I know I’ve talked about it for a long time: I have goals to not only play next year, but beyond that. I’m going to try to do it as best I possibly can. I’m going to give it everything I have, like I always have. . . . It will certainly be a challenge. I don’t take any of these things for granted, but I hope I can keep playing, and I hope I can keep playing at a championship level.”

Some would say he’s currently not playing at a championship level. Some believe he’s secretly injured. Which is a better explanation than the alternative possibility, that he’s healthy but just not good anymore.

Brady, who turns 42 in August, insists he’s fine.

“I’m feeling really good,” Brady said. “It’s been 15 weeks of football and there’s always bumps and bruises you deal with. But I’m feeling great for this time of year. I’ll take it every year to be feeling as good as I am at this time of the season.”

Brady has one year left on his contract with the Patriots. After trading Jimmy Garoppolo in 2017, the Patriots didn’t draft a developmental quarterback in 2018. With more and more great young quarterbacks popping up throughout the NFL, the Patriots need to get theirs — or risk finding themselves in a revolving door of journeymen and assorted slappies until they do.