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Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians announced on Friday what the team will do with star wide receiver Antonio Brown for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game.
“Antonio is going to be out for this week,” Arians said in the press conference.
Brown injured his knee in the first half of the New Orleans Saints Divisional Round game and played sparingly in the second half. While an MRI on Monday didn’t show serious damage, Brown’s status remained in doubt all week. He didn’t practice Wednesday and Thursday, and the same occurred Friday The Athletic’s Greg Auman reported via Twitter.
Brown only had a catch for 10 yards in the Bucs’ 30-20 win over the Saints, but the former All-Pro came into that game on a hot streak. He scored a touchdown or two in each of the previous four games and averaged over 12 yards per catch in those games, except for a blowout win over Detroit on Dec. 26.
“Antonio will be missed, but we’ve got capable people stepping in,” Arians said.
Constellation of Stars
Bucs quarterback Tom Brady has plenty of solid wide receivers to throw to such as Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Scotty Miller, and Tyler Johnson — all who made clutch catches in the postseason thus far. Evans and Godwin made Pro Bowls in the past and continued high-level play this season. Miller and Johnson stepped in various ways, and the Bucs offense kept sailing with them as Auman noted.
Arians affirmed that Miller and Johnson can get the job done in Brown’s absence. Miller caught a 31-yard pass on third down in the fourth quarter at New Orleans, which enabled the Bucs to score a go-ahead field goal for a 23-20 lead. Earlier in that drive, Johnson caught a third-down pass for 15 yards.
“I think you just look to last week when Tyler and Scotty got in there and made those huge plays in the fourth quarter, (with) the amount of trust the coaches and Tom (have) in those guys just because they’ve earned it,” Arians said.
Both Johnson and Miller had productive regular seasons. Miller caught three touchdowns and averaged 15.2 yards per catch, and two of his touchdowns from Brady came on throws of 33 and 48 yards. Johnson scored two touchdowns and averaged 14.1 yards per catch as a rookie amid a deep receiver group. He caught his first career touchdown from Brady against the Packers in Week 6.
Brady also has reliable pass-catching tight ends in Rob Gronkowski and Cameron Brate. Running backs Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones II have catching balls out of the backfield, too, on and off throughout the season. Fournette led the Bucs in receptions with five at New Orleans.
Brady expressed his sorrow for Brown in the press conference and echoed Arians’ comment about the Bucs having plenty of skill players to go to per Pewter Report.
Ensuring Brown’s Future
Arians explained more of the reasoning to sit Brown, who had been day-to-day before Thursday, per the Tampa Bay Times’ Joey Knight.
If the Bucs have a next one after Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, it will be right at home in Tampa for Super Bowl LV.
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