Tom Brady Missing New England Patriots' Voluntary Workouts, But It's Not Worrying

Tom Brady missing the voluntary workouts for the New England Patriots is not as big a deal as has been portrayed by the media.

Following the Patriots' 41-33 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl in February, doubts emerged as to whether Brady, 40, would return for the 2018 season.

Speculation further increased when Brady seemingly elected to skip the voluntary portion of the Patriots' offseason training program, marking the first time he has missed portions of it since 2010.

The five-time Super Bowl champion though, recently cited his absence due to a need to spend time with his family and return completely rejuvenated.

"I think I am really trying to fill my tank up so that when I do go back and I think in my mind I can actually be a better player, a better teammate because I will be really rejuvenated and the fact I want to be there doing the work for them is still very enjoyable to me," he said earlier this month.

He would follow it up with an update on Instagram last week jokingly revealing he would be back in action later this year because he wants to hit 1,000 career rushing yards.

However, with the voluntary offseason program entering its fifth week, there is still no sign of Brady but for former Patriots teammate and analyst Matt Chatham, there is nothing to be concerned about especially given the legendary quarterback's age.

"It’s not even a question of preparing your body, but psychologically, Tom is in uncharted waters," Chatham said, as per ESPN. "The hardest part for older players — and my last season I was 31 — is the routine. It gets really f---ing old."

"It doesn’t mean you don’t love to train, and don’t love to push yourself, and don’t want to stay on top, but I think it comes to a point, ‘Would the team be one day or one week sharper, or whatever, if Tom was there for every day of voluntary [work]?’ Yeah, probably. But what’s the return on that investment? You maybe get a more tired guy in November and December. Do you get a guy that starts to wear down? You don’t want that to happen."

"Tom lives in a different universe than everybody else because he’s done something different than any player has [at age 40]."

It is a sentiment echoed by another former teammate of Brady's, ex-Patriots linebacker, Rob Ninkovich who believes the whole thing is overblown, however, there might be a cause for concern if he misses the OTA (organized team activities)/minicamp portion of the program.

"I think the Tom thing is a little overblown," Ninkovich added. "The workout part of it isn’t a big deal, because you know Tom is working out hard, and his specific workout [with trainer Alex Guerrero] that is going to help him play at a high level as a 41-year-old quarterback."

"So I don’t look into it at all, but if he doesn’t show up for the OTA/minicamp part of it, that’s probably more of an issue because then guys aren’t taking reps [with him]. You’d have Brian Hoyer taking all the first-team reps [at quarterback] and that’s not an ideal situation that you’d want going into training camp."

The one month OTA/minicamp portion voluntary offseason program begins next week while the mandatory minicamp takes place from June 5-7.