The 45-year-old quarterback missed practice Thursday and Bowles told reporters he wouldn’t return until after the team’s second preseason game on Aug. 20.
“Tom was excused today,” Bowles said. “He’ll come back to Tennessee eventually. He will take care of some personal things.
“We talked about that before the training camp started. We gave ourselves that time because he wanted to come in and get chemistry with the guys and go through two weeks of training camp.
“Knowing he wasn’t going to play the first two games, he didn’t want to take replays away from Blaine (Gabbert) and Kyle (Trask) as well as[Ryan Griffin]as far as the next two games are concerned.”
Bowles didn’t elaborate on the reason for Brady’s absence but said it was a plan that had been in place since before training camp began and remained confident Brady would be back for the team’s Week 1 season opener against the Dallas Cowboys .
“Of course there will always be doubts,” Bowles said, “but I have a pretty high level of confidence, yes.”
Bucs linebacker Devin White said Brady has his team’s full support and understanding.
“He’s a grown man — (grown up) than most of us in the dressing room, and at the end of the day he’s a human being,” White said. “He’s got personal issues, but he’s a guy who’s been doing this for so long that he (doesn’t) have to be here.
“When he’s not here, we know he’s still working. He’s got a great supporting cast around him and he’ll bring his work to bear whether he’s here or not, so when he comes back he’ll never miss a beat and that’s the only important thing.
“But more than football we pray for whatever he is up to as a person and we hope everyone else does too and that is all we ask of him – his well being. Football comes second, he as a person comes first.”
Since joining the Bucs from the New England Patriots in 2020, Brady has helped dramatically improve the team’s success.
A perennial underachiever before his arrival, the Bucs won the Super Bowl in Brady’s first season at the helm; his seventh Super Bowl ring.
The team underperformed last season, losing in the playoffs to eventual Super Bowl winners the Los Angeles Rams.
Despite being the league’s oldest quarterback, the predictions for the Bucs this season are once again sky-high: Super Bowl or bust.