Tom Brady Could Have Interesting New Role at Buccaneers Minicamp

Tom Brady could have a new role when he reports to Tampa Bay Buccaneers' minicamp. Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians spoke to reporters this week and said he's not sure how much Brady will be able to do when it comes to on-field work because of his offseason knee surgery. This situation could mean Brady will have to wear a new hat while the team practices.

"I don't know how much I'll let him do ... with guys chasing him around," Arians said, as reported by ESPN. "We'll see. We'll see what the doctors say. He may be doing a lot of coaching." Brady has been working with his teammates recently, throwing to players on Friday with no coaches present. This happened after the team practiced last Monday at the New York Yankees practice facility in Tampa.

"Evidently it was a real good workout," Arians said. "I wasn't here, but from everything I heard, it was a real good workout. He's not in town right now, but I would hope some of those guys that have been with him would come in here tomorrow. We'll see." While Brady will be ready to go when the Buccaneers take on the Dallas Cowboys to kick off the 2021 season on September 9, the surgery he had during the offseason was as serious at it gets. Relatively speaking, Brady has been healthy the majority of his career aside from when he tore his ACL in 2008.

"Yes, you are going to see me on the football field next year," Brady said during an appearance on Hodinkee Radio last month. "I had pretty serious knee surgery this offseason, which is the first surgery I've had in about 12 years. So I was really interested to see how it was going to go because last year just took a lot. Every week, I was kind of tending to my knee, and I thought, 'I'd love to see a season, what it looks like when I can really 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.'"

Brady is coming off a very successful 2020 season. In his first season with the Buccaneers after spending 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, Brady led the team to a Super Bowl win. It's the second Super Bowl title in the franchise's history and the seventh in Brady's career as he won six with the Patriots.