Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski to miss some, if not all of the Patriots’ voluntary offseason program

David Butler II | USA TODAY Sports

The New England Patriots began their voluntary offseason program yesterday, and two very important faces were MIA.

Quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowksi will not be in attendance for at least some of the Patriots’ OTAs.

Brady’s absence on Monday was due in part to his trip to Qatar. He and his family spent time in Qatar over the weekend for a Best Buddies International event. It was said that Brady would miss the first day because he would be flying back from Qatar, but it is now being reported that the QB could skip the entire voluntary offseason program.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, Brady wants to spend more time with his family and with his body coach, Alex Guerrero.

“I would go so far to say that I would call it unlikely at this point that he is a part of any of the voluntary program this offseason,” Darlington said. “How far he extends that is a major question, one that I don’t even know Brady has the answer to. But for now, we should definitely at least not anticipate that he is a part of this week and likely moving forward.”

As for Gronk – the tight end has not made up his mind about whether he’s returning this coming football season, but it is said that he has had “good communication” with the Patriots.

Gronkowski has a $250,000 workout bonus in his contract for 2018, which is paid out based on him attending 90 percent of the voluntary workouts.