Not getting into the he-said, she-said with the AB and Arians thing. Not surprised by the way either have addressed the situation so far. Pretty on-brand on both sides.
But here is what I will say: Arians and Bucs staff have been very careful with injuries. And very careful especially this season. SMB and Carlton might have been able to play before they were activated, but Arians gave both an extra week to get all the way back to full strength
SMB got 2 extra weeks. Arians gives TONS of veteran days off, insisting that older players take them regularly. Even Brady, for whom that wasn't practice in the past. A few weeks ago, Arians also started walk-throughs only on Weds to limit wear and tear.
Arians talks often about how he completely relies on sports science and the team medical staff to fuel his decisions on injured or older players. Over the past 2 years, the Bucs have been one of the least injured teams in the NFL.
He's also been extra cautious with players. Gronk wanted to play vs #Saints in Week 8, and he was given the green light. But 6 snaps in, he had back spasms spring up and Arians pulled him out. Stayed out until Week 11 just to make sure he was fully healed.
Just 2 weeks ago, Arians asked Pinion if he wanted a week off as he was dealing with a minor hip injury. Pinion said yes, so they brought up the PS punter for a week. Dean had a concussion, cleared protocol, then felt ill in the next game. Bucs pulled him out and held him out an
extra week, just to make sure there was no connection. They never found that there was a connection, but they were prioritizing his health. Vets like Evans and Gronk have often mentioned how well they feel taken care of in Tampa Bay.
Anyway, this is a long thread to say that if this happened, it would be totally out of character from everything we've seen with this #Bucs regime over past couple years. Doesn't mean it didn't happen, just offering some important context.
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