Tom Brady Won't Play in Buccaneers Preseason Opener Against Miami Dolphins

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are slated to host the Miami Dolphins for joint practices next week prior to their preseason opener on August 13th. We have now learned that quarterback Tom Brady and a host of other starters will not play in the first preseason game against the Dolphins.

Bowles said Tom Brady will not play in the Bucs’ preseason opener vs. Dolphins next week.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) August 3, 2022

Per head coach Todd Bowles on who Bucs fans will see come next Saturday:

“There will be a lot of starters that won’t play in that game,” Bowles explained. “They’ll get plenty of work in practice, though, the two practices we’ll get to play similar to a game for those guys.

“We want to see some of the younger guys play that I’ve mentioned and try to build our depth a little bit and go from there. …[Brady] will not play in that game.”

It is not surprising to see Bowles sit the majority of his starters, especially Brady, in the preseason opener as many teams around the league tend to do the same. The starters will definitely receive valuable reps throughout the week, however, to give them some live looks against competition outside of their immediate teammates.

Even without Brady, there should be plenty to speak about leading up to and during the game with the results of the NFL's investigation into the Miami Dolphins' "impermissible contact" with Tom Brady during and after the 2021 season.

Moving forward, I expect the starters to slowly begin to get more integrated into the preseason games - even though they will 100% have a snap count. If we see Brady at all during the preseason games, expect it to be much less playing time than others and for backups Blaine Gabbert and Kyle Trask to get tons of run.

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