Young On Toucher & Rich: Will Brady Play Friday Night?
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady left Wednesday's joint practice with the Buccaneers with a left knee injury when lineman Nate Solder "kicked" Brady's knee during 11-on-11 drills. This is the same knee Brady had surgery on in 2008 after tearing his ACL in the season-opener.
Shalise Manza Young covers the Patriots for the Boston Globe and joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Thursday to discuss what she saw and what she has heard about Tom Brady's status.
During 11-on-11 drills Buccaneers defensive end Adrian Clayborn bullrushes Patriots left tackle Nate Solder and pushes him straight back causing him to fall and make contact with Brady. Was Clayborn out of line?
HURLEY: Injury Scare A Reminder Of Patriots' Fragility
"No not at all, unfortunately if you were going to place blame on anybody it would be Solder," said Shalise. "Clayborn pushed Solder back a good 10-feet, he just kept pushing him back and pushing him back pushing him back and Solder couldn't stop him. And that Solder's job in that situation to stop Clayborn, so Clayborn didn't do anything malicious he did nothing wrong."
After the contact Brady limped off the field, favoring his left knee, but he returned to practice shortly thereafter. He eventually walked off the field, talked with Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, and left practice with the team trainer and didn't return.
According to ESPN the quarterback attended team meetings on Wednesday night and, baring any overnight swelling, will be back on the practice field Thursday. The bigger question is will Brady play at all in Friday's preseason game?
"If he doesn't I don't think it's a big deal, I think it's just precautionary. Brady of course is going to want to play, but it just might be in his best interest to let him sit out a little bit."
"There's really no reason to push it because you really don't want to take a chance that it ends up being Ryan Mallett who's your starter on day one."
The discussion then became would it really be Mallett who gets the nod if Brady went down? Tim Tebow has had more experience starting in the NFL and even won a playoff game when he was in Denver. Is Tebow really that bad at his position that his experience is meaningless?
"Ryan Mallett is far more ready and he runs their offense, so to speak. He doesn't run a modified read option whatever that Tebow does when he's out there."
Luckily though it doesn't look like it'll come to making a decision between which backup will play.
Young On Toucher & Rich: Will Brady Play Friday Night?
Tune in to Patriots-Buccaneers Friday night on 98.5 The Sports Hub — the flagship station of the New England Patriots. Pregame coverage begins at 5 p.m. and Bob Socci and Scott Zolak have the call at 8 p.m.!
