Bucs' Tom Brady should be ready to return from knee surgery 'around June'

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback and seven-time champion Tom Brady earned his fifth Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award earlier this month while dealing with a left-knee issue that reportedly requires "more than just a little clean-up" during the offseason. 

As The Athletic's Greg Auman noted, Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians said on Wednesday that it should be "somewhere around June" before Brady is able to resume full practices following the knee procedure. Barring a significant and unforeseen setback, the all-time great who turns 44 years old in August should be good to go when preseason activities get underway. 

While successful COVID-19 vaccine rollouts are occurring throughout the United States, it remains far too early to predict or guess what the preseason will look like come August. Even if Brady's return is delayed by an entire month, he'd still be on track to start under center for Week 1 of the regular season. 

On Tuesday, Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said on the "Rich Eisen Show" that it's possible Brady could extend his deal and continue playing for the club beyond the 2021 campaign. Licht explained:

"He certainly didn't look like he slowed down any this year. That's a possibility and we'll have to see how that goes. It appears that he really had a good time this year winning the Super Bowl. Likes our organization, likes our coaches, likes our head coach and ownership and we certainly love him. Usually when you have those two things going for each other, it's a match made in heaven so we'd like to keep this going." 

Licht may want to wait until the summer months when Brady's knee has recovered before he puts pen to paper on an agreement.