TAMPA, Florida – Tampa Bay Buccaneers will not have wide receiver Antonio Brown for Sunday’s NFC championship game at the Green Bay Packers, coach Bruce Arians announced on Friday.
“I just talked to him this morning and putting him on the plane and flying up there and swelling more doesn’t make sense,” Arians said. “He wasn’t as close as I had hoped, so we’ll prepare him for the next one.”
Brown suffered a knee injury in the New Orleans Saints divisional playoffs and played just 27 shots. He didn’t train this week.
Arians had described him as “day to day,” but Brown failed to make enough progress in his healing.
The former All-Pro led the buccaneers in receiving goals in the last five weeks of the regular season and had a 36-meter touchdown catch in their wild card victory over Washington. Brown also has experience playing in two league games and a Super Bowl, something a few other players have on this list besides Tom Brady.
“Obviously, it’s bad for Antonio. We wish he was there with us,” Brady said. “Other guys will have to step up and do the job. I have a lot of confidence in the guys who weren’t there that long when AB was there.”
Arians said he believes Scotty Miller and rookie Tyler Johnson will be able to step up. Johnson got a third key catch, for 15 yards, against the Saints. Miller had a 29-yard catch against New Orleans, but was at the end of the first few of Brady’s best deep pieces this season – a 33-yard touchdown run against the Las Vegas Raiders and a 48-yard touchdown run. of courts against the Minnesota Vikings.
“I think if you just look at last week, when Scotty and Tyler did those huge plays in the fourth quarter, the amount of confidence that the coaches and Tom have in those guys just because they won it. “Antonio will be missed, but we have capable people who intervene.”
Arians said there is a possibility that defensive striker Vita Vea will play after returning to training this week for the first time since an ankle fracture in week 5.
“He looked really good. He’s been running for almost three weeks and he had a very good practice yesterday and a good one today,” Arians said. “We haven’t made that decision yet, but we’ll see if we want to activate it or not. There’s a chance.”