The NFL offseason is in full swing, but seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is doing his best to slow down rumors about his return to the field. In other news, Rashawn Slater said that he is back to full strength, while Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles is hoping to get Mike Evans more involved in the offense.
NFL Rumors: Tom Brady, Rashawn Slater, Mike Evans
Tom Brady Will Not Return to the NFL
Future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady is trying to become a partial owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, but rumors across the web indicate that he might also try to return to the field. However, before this wildfire could truly spread, Brady put those storylines to bed with a definitive statement on his retirement.
Previously, reports indicated that all 32 teams would need to approve Brady’s return to the field as a partial owner, but a recent article by TMZ states that he’d actually only need approval from 24 organizations.
Obviously, this provides a much easier path for the seven-time Super Bowl champion to return to the field. While some organizations like the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers would never want someone as good as Brady returning to their division, a sizable portion of the owners would probably welcome Brady back with open arms. After all, the ratings boost provided by Brady playing in a massive market like Vegas would help all 32 teams.
This report, combined with the fact that Jimmy Garoppolo is still not healthy, naturally made people believe that Brady could be under center for the Las Vegas Raiders in 2023. However, the greatest quarterback in NFL history is clearly focused on life after football.
Rashawn Slater “100 Percent” Recovered From Bicep Injury
The Los Angeles Chargers have invested a lot into their offensive line over the past few years, but no single player is more important to the unit’s overall success than Rashawn Slater. The former first-round pick missed the vast majority of the 2022 campaign, but he is reportedly fully recovered and back to full strength.
Speaking via video, Slater said that his bicep has been “100 percent for a while now, so at this point, it’s just, the more reps I get, the more confident I’ll feel. But it feels great.” The offensive tackle added that the injury also served as a reminder for “how easily it can be taken away from you. You only get so much time as it is in the NFL…so really just feel a lot of urgency to get to where I want to be.”
Assuming he truly is back to his old self, Slater should slide right in at tackle and continue to establish himself as one of the best in the league. The Los Angeles Chargers have one of the top rosters in the NFL, but they’ll need all the help they can get to take down the Kansas City Chiefs.
Buccaneers Want Mike Evans to Get More Touchdowns
The 2022 Tampa Bay Buccaneers struggled to consistently find the endzone, and head coach Todd Bowles believes that Mike Evans is key to fixing this issue. After scoring a combined 27 touchdowns in the first two years of the Tom Brady Era, the superstar wideout only hauled in six scores in 2022. If the Buccaneers want to improve in 2023, Bowles believes that they need to find a way to get Evans back into the endzone.
“We’ve got to make that a priority, obviously. I think we made it a priority last year. Sometimes it was shut down; sometimes we just misread it here and there…we’ve got to get better in that area in getting him the football.”
While Bowles’ heart might be in the right place, it’s hard to see things getting much better in 2023. Tom Brady might not have been at his best in 2022, but he was still a lot better than Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask. Mayfield hasn’t had a 20-touchdown season since 2020, and Trask is a highly untested rookie that couldn’t beat out Blaine Gabbert for two consecutive seasons. Despite the talent at wide receiver, this team will still struggle to put up points this season.
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