One of the rites of football season is poring over the daily injury reports to see which players might not be able to play come Sunday.
The Patriots have long made that more difficult than other teams by listing a slew of players whose status may not be in as much doubt as it appears from their placement on the list. We knew we’d have tight end Rob Gronkowski’s status to obsess over this week, but the Pats added another key player to the list on Thursday.
Quarterback Tom Brady did not participate in practice and is listed on the injury report with a calf injury after being injury-free on Wednesday. It’s hardly the first time that Brady has shown up on an injury report before playing on Sunday so there’s not much concern that the team will have to turn to Jimmy Garoppolo much sooner than expected.
That concern will go down to zero if Brady is back at practice on Friday and there’s a fair chance we’ll be looking at a similar injury report at this point in Week Two.