The Buccaneers will head into the 2022 regular season without center Ryan Jensen. They may not have him at all.
Via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, coach Todd Bowles told reporters that Jensen “will miss at least a couple of months” after suffering a knee injury on Thursday. Bowles added that the team will take a closer look at the damage, in order to determine whether he’ll play at all in 2022.
This means that, when the Buccaneers faces the Cowboys in Week One, the Bucs will have a new interior offensive line. Both guards — Ali Marpet and Alex Cappa — are gone.
Jensen was almost gone, via free agency. Quarterback Tom Brady‘s unretirement contributed to Jensen’s decision to stay put.
The Jensen injury becomes very bad news for the soon-to-be 45-year-old Brady. For as well as he steps away from pressure around the edges, he has a harder time dealing with heat up the middle. Whoever replaces Jensen will be expected to prevent a major hole from emerging, which would result in defensive players getting directly in Brady’s face.