Page 27 - Florida Sentinel 5-28-21

Sports
Bruce Arians Plans To Coach Beyond Tom Brady’s Potential Retirement
Patrick Mahomes Should Be Fully
Bruce Arians has re- tired once as an NFL head coach. It doesn’t sound like he’s ready to do it again any- time soon.
The Tampa Bay Bucca- neers coach dismissed the notion that his future is tied to quarterback Tom Brady’s, suggesting that he intends to coach for the du- ration of his current five-year contract and possibly be- yond.
I don’t have any plans on re- tiring,” Arians told The Pewter Report podcast. “It’s just, when do I not want to go back to work? When I’m not excited about going back to work then I’m cheating somebody. I’m cheating the Glazer family, I’m cheating my players. Right now I can’t wait to get back to work. I don’t know when that’s going to happen, but no, I’m not tied to any players.”
Buccaneers Downplay Concerns About Health Of Antonio Brown
ANTONIO BROWN
The Tampa Bay Bucca- neers are downplaying con- cerns about the health of Antonio Brown with the wide receiver’s deal on hold.
A source reported Wednes- day that the wide receiver un- derwent a successful knee surgery on Tuesday that was described as a routine clean- up procedure. However, the Buccaneers still will not make Brown’s new deal with the team official until he can pass a physical.
Brown’s new deal with the team was reported almost a month ago, so it definitely raises some eyebrows that he has yet to officially sign. As- suming the knee situation is really all there is to it, it’s un- likely to be a huge deal. Until the team makes the deal offi- cial, however, questions are going to linger about the wide receiver’s health.
Cleared From Injury
Buccaneers Projected To Have No. 1 Offense This Upcoming Season
BRUCE ARIANS AND TOM BRADY
“Oh yeah, that’s the plan.
Patrick Mahomes un- derwent surgery earlier this offseason to address a toe in- jury, and it sounds like rehab has gone as well as expected for the Kansas City Chiefs star.
Mahomes is ahead of schedule in his recovery and expected to participate in or- ganized team activities next week, James Palmer of NFL Network reports. The goal is for the quarterback to be a limited participant in OTAs and a full-go by training camp.
Mahomes suffered a toe injury in the Kansas City Chiefs’ Divisional Round play- off win against the Cleveland Browns. The injury limited his mobility in the next two rounds of the playoffs, includ-
PATRICK MAHOMES
ing the Super Bowl loss to Tampa Bay. He underwent surgery in February for turf
toe.While Mahomes said he was 100 percent healthy for the Super Bowl, that is hard to believe given that he had sur- gery. Fortunately, he will be fully healed in plenty of time for the 2021 season.
With one season in the books, all the starters from the Super Bowl roster return- ing, and an offseason to actu- ally prepare for the regular season has many folks con- sidering the 2021 Buccaneers could have one of the best of- fenses in history.
Heading into the 2021 season, PFF ranked Tom Brady as the No. 2 quarter- back in the league. But as a
unit, NFL.com is projecting the Bucs to have the No. 1 ranked offense in the league for this season.
Tampa Bay finished the 2020 season third in the league in total offense behind the Green Bay Packers (1st) and Buffalo Bills (2nd). In this year’s NFL.com projec- tions, they are ahead of the Chiefs (2nd) and Packers (3rd).
Cam Newton Put In
Significant Work On This
Skill During Offseason
After a rough 2020 sea- son, it sounds like Cam Newton has spent the off- season getting back to basics in preparation for 2021.
According to reporters, Newton quietly spent the offseason rebuilding some fundamentals with the help of a throwing coach. The work appears to have paid dividends, as some players who also played with the New England Patriots quarterback last season noticed a differ- ence during voluntary work- outs last week.
Newton completed 65.8 percent of his pass attempts in 2020, but only racked up 2,657 yards and eight touch- downs. Part of that came down to a lack of weapons and a more conservative gameplan, though that sec-
CAM NEWTON
ond factor may have been in response to Newton’s is- sues, not a cause of them.
The veteran quarterback will have to fend off rookie Mac Jones if he wants to keep the Patriots’ starting job. He’s named one reason he thinks he could be better this year, and if this work pays off, he might end up fairly well-positioned to start again.
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