Bruce Arians hopes Antonio Brown isn’t on the field as much as he was in his debut with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
With Tom Brady and the Bucs basically abandoning the run after falling behind early in their 38-3 loss Sunday to New Orleans, Brown played 39 snaps in his first NFL game since Sept. 2019.
“His pitch count was a little higher than we anticipated,” Arians said during his weekly appearance on Buccaneers.com. “But we tried to go two-minute early in the ballgame just to get some life, so his pitch count was up a little bit.
“But he handled it really, really well. . . . He did everything he needed to do to play well in that ballgame. The guys embraced him. They all helped him. And nobody works any harder than him on the practice field, so that was easy.”
Arians added that he hopes Brown’s playing time decreases this week against the Carolina Panthers, because that would mean we’re “we’re not throwing the ball that much this week.”
Bruce Arians, Antonio BrownGetty Images (2)The Bucs’ five rushing attempts against the Saints represented the fewest ever by one team in an NFL game. Brown had three receptions on five targets for 31 yards in the loss in his first appearance since serving an eight-game NFL suspension to start this season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
