Bucs Star Defender “Likely” Out For Thursday
As the old saying goes, when it rains, it pours. The Bucs find themselves outside with no umbrella at the moment after dropping the game 21-3 to the lowly Carolina Panthers. To make matters worse, their best defensive player of the season, Antoine Winfield Jr, doesn’t look like he’ll be available for their next game on Thursday night football.
Winfield suffered a concussion in the second half of Sunday’s game making a tackle on the play. Trainers looked at him on the field and then he walked off to the sideline without returning.
On Monday, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles gave an update on the status of Winfield and it’s not looking good with Tampa Bay playing on a short week.
“Winfield has a concussion, so he’s in the protocol,” Bowles said. “He’ll likely be out.”
It’s a tough blow to a Bucs secondary that is already down Logan Ryan at safety and Carlton Davis III at Sean Murphy-Bunting at corner. Winfield is having another Pro Bowl-worthy season with 39 tackles, fives tackles for loss, three sacks, two pass breakups, one interception and a forced fumble.
Winfield also had a concussion last season that kept him out of games in Week 5 and 6 in wins over the Dolphins and Eagles.
Gage was the other player who was injured on Sunday with an hamstring injury. This has been bothering him since training camp and it flared up in the game.
“Russell has to get his MRI back,” Bowles said. “So we’ll see what happens there.”
Will CB Davis Be Available For Bucs?
Davis had a late change to his status on the injury report, downgrading from questionable to out with a hip injury. That meant the Bucs had Jamel Dean as their number one corner with rookie Zyon McCollum getting his first career start.
“He came out Friday and did some things and didn’t feel well,” Bowles explained. “So that kind of set him back.”
A return after one game is still possible, but not really known just yet.
“We got to see what he does this week,” Bowles said. “Just want to see how far he is.”
The Bucs seem to be shorthanded again among their defensive backs. No Winfield, no SMB, no Ryan and potentially no Davis again too. That’s a huge issue for a team that’s already struggling in many areas.
