Despite going under the knife this offseason, Tom Brady is hoping he’ll be able to participate in his standard training this offseason. Speaking to ESPN’s Jenna Laine, the veteran quarterback revealed that he’s recovering from his knee surgery and is hopeful that he’ll be a full participant at mandatory June minicamp.
“Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. I feel pretty good, and I push myself pretty hard,” Brady said. “I feel pretty good. I don’t know if I could go this week, but we’ll see how things play out. It’s a long time between now and the beginning of the season, and just be smart about all these different things that we have to do and fulfill; but we all take a lot of pride in being ready to go, and I’m sure we will be.”
“It’s good, it’s good. It’s good progress. It’s rehab. None of that is fun, but looking forward to getting back to real training and stuff, which is hopefully here pretty soon. … I’m cool with it. It’s just part of what you deal with. Things come up. You deal with them the best way you can, with the best opportunity to improve. I’m definitely feeling a lot better than I did six or seven weeks ago.”
This is a somewhat notable development; while GM Jason Licht previously revealed that Brady was recovering quickly, it sounded unlikely that the quarterback would be a full-go during 7-on-7 work in June.
It’s notable when any quarterback has a knee procedure, much less an iconic quarterback who will be 44 at the start of the next season. Still, no one within the organization seems to be all that concerned. We previously learned that the procedure had been planned for a while, and Licht had described the surgery as “minor.”
The Buccaneers still haven’t added a definitive backup quarterback this offseason, although the sentiment is that they’re expected to re-sign Blaine Gabbert.