TAMPA, Fla. — The first free agent the Bucs signed after Tom Brady ended his retirement was center Ryan Jensen.
It wasn’t a coincidence.
Brady is very particular about the player who snaps him the football and keeping Jensen was a big priority.
The 31-year-old is coming off his first Pro Bowl selection and signed a three-year, $39 million contract with $26.5 million guaranteed one day after Brady announced he was returning to the Bucs.
But on Thursday, Jensen sustained a left knee injury in the final period of practice during a two-minute drill.
Jensen had to be carted off the field with a trainer holding his knee and ankle in place as teammates gathered around to shake his hand and wish him well.
Neither coach Todd Bowles nor general manager Jason Licht had any immediate updates on Jensen’s condition after practice, but their tones indicated the injury could be serious.
“Right now, we feel terrible for Jensen,” Licht said. “Don’t have any update on that. We won’t for some time. We have some tests you have to wait a couple days before you can get them. You have to wait for swelling and things like that to go down.”
Bucs players are in shorts and helmets with limited contact until Monday. Bowles talked about players needing to take care of each other but said he wasn’t sure how the injury occurred.
“It’s unfortunate right now because there was nothing fancy going on in there,” he said. “We’ve got to look at the tape and see what happened but it didn’t look like anything as far as how it happened. I don’t know. We’ve got to take a look at the tape and hope for the best.”
Robert Hainsey, a second-year pro from Notre Dame, finished the two-minute drill at center and could be the short-term replacement for Jensen.
But Bowles indicated they would consider other players at center as well. The Bucs already will have two new guards after the retirement of Ali Marpet and Alex Cappa signing with the Bengals in the offseason as a free agent.
The Bucs have a battle at left guard with Aaron Stinnie, rookie Luke Goedeke and Nick Leverett.
“It’s early in camp,” Bowles said. “We’ll start moving some guys in there and we’ll get in pads and if he has to miss any time, we’ll go from there. We’ll have some battles going in there as well.”
