Getty Tom Brady could play well past age 45.
Tom Brady will play when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the Cincinnati Bengals in their preseason opener on Saturday, August 14th. How much fans will see Brady behind center remains to be seen, but Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians hinted that the quarterback may only play a series or two.
“More like a first [preseason game], everybody will play,” Arians told reporters heading into the team’s first preseason matchup. “Don’t know how much, but everybody will play. The Titans, we’re going against them for two practices, then we’ll determine how that is as far as who plays in that one. And the last one we’ll play a bunch.”
The Buccaneers have three preseason games, and Arians outlined a plan for how the team will approach each one. Based on Arians’ comments, Brady and the starters will likely see the most snaps in their final preseason game against the Texans on August 28th.
Arians Predicted Brady Will Play ‘A Drive or Two’ Against the Bengals
Arians noted that he has not discussed the specific details regarding Brady’s playing time with the quarterback. The Bucs coach expects Brady will play “a drive or two” against the Bengals. It will be Brady’s first meaningful snaps to test out his surgically repaired knee.
“No, we’ll just wait and see how it goes,” Arians said when asked about Brady’s playing time against the Bengals. “It’s normally a drive or two. It won’t be many.”
Brady Described the Procedure as a ‘Pretty Serious Knee Surgery’
Brady’s snaps in the team’s first preseason game may seem irrelevant, but the lack of limitations indicates the quarterback is back to being at full strength after having surgery on his left knee during the offseason. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Brady played through a torn MCL during the 2020 season. Brady indicated it was an injury he sustained while still with the Patriots.
“Bucs QB Tom Brady’s injury was actually more serious than that. It was a fully torn MCL, sources say, that required surgery following the Super Bowl win,” Rapoport tweeted.
After the Super Bowl, Arians initially described Brady’s procedure as a minor “clean up.” Brady later admitted it was a “pretty serious knee surgery,” but the quarterback has since posted videos of himself running without a knee brace. It will be worth watching how the Bucs offense performs after a full offseason, and Brady not having to tend to his knee each week leading up to kickoff.
“I had a pretty serious knee surgery this offseason, which is the first surgery I’ve had in about 12 years,” Brady explained on the Hodinkee podcast in May, per Tampa Bay Times. “I was really interested to see how it was going to go, because last year it just took a lot. Every week I was kind of tending to my knee, and I thought I would love to see a season where I can focus on some other strength stuff that I want to do, some other technique stuff where I’m not just focused on protecting my knee all the time.