The New England Patriots are playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Friday night and the matchup will be the first time that Tom Brady will hit the field since dealing with his knee injury scare.
The team is hoping that Brady can make it through with no issues, as he is by far the most irreplaceable player in the NFL. The team is dealing with an injury to Rob Gronkowski and after losing Wes Welker in free agency they cannot afford to lose their quarterback. The game on Friday night will likely have Brady in a series or two and if he makes it out fine he will play in the third preseason game as well before facing the Giants in the final week.
Ryan Mallett and Tim Tebow will split the rest of the reps in the game and Mallett appears fine after dealing with a head injury in the first preseason win over the Eagles and the Patriots will be looking hard at their defense against the Bucs. The team has some issues up front, but their main core looks ready for a big season, as does tight end Jake Ballard, He could end up being the MVP of the team with Gronk out, as Aaron Hernandez is obviously gone as well and someone will need to step up.
In a rare occurrence, the broadcast will be handled on FOX with their national team of Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa, as they usually handle NFC games during the season. The crew will also work the Patriots and Bucs in Week 3 as well as the Saints and Pats in Week 6 and on Friday night they will be at Gillette Stadium. Albert will be handling play by play duties, while Johnston will be the analyst and Siragusa will be in line as the usual sideline reporter.
FOX has the NFC package so the crew rarely gets to see Tom Brady in action and now they will do it three times in a season, including for the home game against the Buccaneers that will come in week 3 on Sept. 22 and another home game against the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 13 against Drew Brees. That game will have the best matchup of two quarterbacks the Patriots face until the Broncos with Peyton Manning and the game on Friday will be a nice preview for the later Bucs game.
