Tom Brady, the Well-Healed Quarterback

NFL's Most-Scrutinized Knee Is Ready for the Next Test

Every throw is studied. Each on-field step -- or misstep -- is scrutinized, even more closely than usual. And the standard against which it all is measured is his old, practically perfect self.

So it has gone for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady as he works his way back from the knee injury that ended last season for him after less than one game. And so it will go Friday night at FedEx Field as he takes the next step in his return, facing the Washington Redskins in the second-to-last preseason game that generally serves as an NFL team's most important dress rehearsal for the regular season.

The Redskins' first-team offense is expected to play for at least the first half, and Coach Jim Zorn expects progress from a group that has failed to produce a touchdown in its first five series of the preseason. Quarterback Jason Campbell could also benefit from a sharp outing following his 1-for-7 passing performance in last week's victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Much of the Patriots' focus remains on Brady. Is he back to being the Tom Brady who orchestrated three Super Bowl triumphs and had one of the greatest seasons ever by a quarterback two years ago? And if so, when?

Brady said this week he does his best not to get too caught up in incremental analysis.

"I know where I'm at. I know how I feel, how comfortable I am back there," Brady said at a news conference. "Hopefully I can contribute in the way I have in the past. I don't think about it. I don't lose sleep over it. I just get up and try to go out there and make the right plays, make the right decisions. I think if I make a poor play, I never have thought, 'Well, I wonder if it was because of my injury last year.' I think, 'Well, I've got to make improvements,' just like every year where things don't really go your way."

The moment when all observers can look at Brady and declare him really, truly back probably can't happen during a preseason game. Such a declaration most likely will be reserved for the regular season that begins for the Patriots with a Monday night game on Sept. 14 at home against the Buffalo Bills. But there are things to be accomplished along the way.

Brady accomplished one of them in the Patriots' most recent preseason game when he absorbed a jarring hit by Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Robert Geathers.

"He got up, so that's good," Patriots defensive lineman Richard Seymour told reporters after the game.

It was a watch-what-you-wish-for moment for Brady, who'd said after the preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles that he wanted to be knocked down a time or two and get it over with. Against the Bengals, he also was hit by linebacker Keith Rivers.

"It's good when you're a quarterback to get hit," Brady said. "Before the game, you always have this anxiousness, nervousness about the game. Then once you take a hit, usually it goes away. Hopefully, [it's] not under those circumstances where I'm making poor calls or anything like that, but part of playing quarterback is taking those hits and getting up. That's part of that position.

The Patriots, like the Redskins, enter this game seeking some consistent production on offense. The Patriots lost to the Bengals, 7-6, and for the Redskins game Coach Bill Belichick will go into something resembling regular season mode before likely scaling things back for Brady and his team's other regulars in the preseason finale.

"We can't control what Washington does and I'm not really worried about that," Belichick said this week. "But we focus on the players that probably play a little bit longer and we did less of that the first couple weeks because we saw so many different people at different positions, and that's kind of what we expected. It's more of getting used to the preparation routine, and I'm sure some of our players will play a little more than they did last week. There will be some players that play a little less. That will vary player to player, position to position and so forth. It's definitely another step and part of that progression is our preparation during the week, and in some cases maybe extended playing time in the game."

The expectations are enormous for Brady's return, given that he and the Patriots rewrote portions of the NFL's offensive record book and took an undefeated record into the Super Bowl the last time he played a full season. Minus Brady, the Patriots went 11-5 last season with Matt Cassel at quarterback but missed the playoffs. The Patriots' safety net at quarterback is gone, with Cassel having been traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in the offseason. So for the Patriots, it's imperative that Brady's knee be sound, and that he knocks the rust off his game quickly.

"I'd love to be perfect out there right now," Brady said. "It hasn't been that way. I missed a few throws in this last game and made a few mental errors. . . . The more games we can play in, the better, as far as I'm concerned for me and my teammates, so that you can understand where you're at.

"That's the best. That's the reason for the preseason games: You really get a measure of where you're at as a team because you're competing against another team and you want to see how you stack up, how well you've been practicing, because there's not a lot of evidence there on the practice field. You've got to put it to use. . . . I think this week will be a really important step for us. We'll really get a good idea of where we're at as a team after this game."