TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady said Sunday that his knee is recovering well from offseason surgery and that he’s hopeful he’ll be able to resume his typical training and participate in a mandatory June minicamp, if there is one.
“Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. I feel pretty good and I push myself pretty hard,” Brady said at coach Bruce Arians’ Family Foundation gala. “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,” he added. “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.”
A source told ESPN that Brady had been planning the knee operation for several months, so it wasn’t a surprise. The Bucs are also one of several NFL teams electing not to participate in in-person OTAs due to the pandemic.
When asked if he would still hold informal workouts this year, even if he can’t participate fully, Brady said, “Yeah. We’ll just take it and see how we go and see how things play out over the course of the offseason. A lot of things come up and change over the course of the offseason and we’ve got a lot of hardworking guys so guys will be anxious to get together and get to work.
“As soon as I’m ready to throw, that will be really important for me. That’s always a big part of my preparation — actually doing what my job is.”
Outside linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul, who was also in attendance at Arians’ gala and also underwent offseason knee surgery, said he’s “85 to 90 percent” in his recovery.
