FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — There’s no sense of panic in New England about Tom Brady.
Yet.
Brady’s status for the AFC Championship was unclear Wednesday afternoon after the Patriots quarterback missed practice because of an undisclosed illness, but teammates did their best to shrug off his absence.
Coach Bill Belichick refused comment when asked why Brady was not present for the first significant workout in advance of Sunday’s trip to Denver to face Peyton Manning and the Broncos.
Brady was listed as absent because of the combination of illness and a shoulder problem on the Patriots’ official injury report released Wednesday afternoon.
The shoulder isn’t a concern (out of gamesmanship, Belichick has put Brady on the injury report with that “problem” every week since 2004), but an illness being serious enough to keep Brady out of a Wednesday practice entirely raised some eyebrows.
Wednesday practices are “installation day” in the NFL, when teams first install the offensive gameplan for a Sunday game.
Backup Ryan Mallett took all the repetitions in place of Brady in practice, and Mallett also took the scout-team snaps because he is the only backup on the Patriots’ roster.
“It was fun,” Mallett told a crush of reporters at his locker after practice. “I like to play in our offense, so it was a lot of fun.”
Brady was spotted at the facility early Wednesday morning, but was nowhere to be found during the portion of practice open to the media, and teammates confirmed he missed the entire session.
Even Belichick appeared to be caught off guard by the development judging by his response when asked to recall the last time Brady did something to surprise him.
“This morning,” Belichick deadpanned.
Pressed to explain what Brady had done to surprise him, the coach shook his head.
“We’ll keep that between Tom and I,” he said.
Belichick isn’t scheduled to speak to the media again until Friday morning, so there won’t be any official comment from the Patriots before then unless Brady returns Thursday and speaks to the media.
Brady had been noticeably under the weather in his weekly media session before last week’s divisional playoff victory over the Colts.
With the exception of the 2008 season, when he missed the final 15 games because of a torn knee ligament, Brady has never missed a game — regular season or playoffs — for health reasons since taking over as the starter full time in 2002.
Even if Brady plays Sunday, a lingering illness could affect his performance — especially with the setting being the mile-high altitude of the Broncos’ Sports Authority Field.
Several players said they found it strange to go through practice without Brady at the helm.
“I mean it’s your guy,” wide receiver Julian Edelman said. “When he’s not out there, of course it’s a little different. But Ryan came in and he ran the offense. And more importantly, I was just kind of worrying about what I had to do to get my assignments and get my work in. I’m sure other guys were thinking the same thing. Everyone is just trying to go out there and do their job.”
Not surprisingly, considering Belichick’s strict marching orders to his players not to discuss injuries, Edelman wouldn’t speculate on Brady’s availability for Sunday.
“You know, I’m not a trainer, nor am I a doctor, so you’d have to ask him,” Edelman said.
Mallett, though, wasn’t as tight-lipped about his confidence in seeing Brady square off against Manning again.
“Tom? No, I’m not worried about Tom,” Mallett said with a grin. “I’m not worried at all.”