Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski Not Present At New England Patriots' OTAs

Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowksi were both absent for the start of the New England Patriots' organized team activities (OTA) portion of their voluntary offseason program that began Monday.

Brady, expected to return for the 2018 NFL season, already missed a significant portion of the offseason program owing to him wanting to spend time with his family and return as a "rejuventated" player, following the Patriots' 41-33 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl in February.

"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," the quarterback said earlier this month.

While the OTA portion of the minicamp is voluntary, Brady was still expected to take part as it is a significant portion of the camp with players coming together to work on football drills for the first time ahead of the new season.

Gronkowski, who has two years remaining on his current Patriots contact, was also not present Monday but according to NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport, both players are expected to return for the mandatory minicamp that takes place from June 5-7.

Brady was recently defended by former teammates for missing the voluntary workouts, ex-Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich, among others, believe the reports of him being absent were overblown. However, Ninkovich did add, missing the OTA/minicamp portion of the program would be more of an issue.

"I think the Tom thing is a little overblown," Ninkovich explained. "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," he added.

Brady has not missed the voluntary offseason program since 2010 and the 40-year-old's comments from 2013 about how important the OTAs were, soon emerged online following his absence.

"He (Patriots coach Bill Belichick) talks about, you think it's just an OTA in the spring time and it's not that important and all those things that probably could enter your mind," Brady was quoted as saying at the time.

"The truth is, this lays the foundation for the start of training camp and if you have a good training camp, it usually means a good start to the season. A good start to the season leads to good position entering the second half of the season. Everything ends up having some significance to it."

Brady notably led the NFL in 2017 with 4,577 passing yards and 286.1 yards per game.