Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans returned to practice Wednesday, getting limited work. The team is hopeful he can get back on the field this week after missing three games with a hamstring injury.
Tampa Bay has gone 0-3 without Evans.
“From what I can see, [he’s] good, and just talking to him, he seems really positive about it,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said Wednesday, via Scott Smith of the team website. “You guys know: Mike’s a pro. He’s going to do everything he can to get back out there with us and fight for this team as we take it one game at a time.”
Evans’ NFL-record 10 consecutive seasons of 1,000 yards to open a career is in serious jeopardy. He has only 26 receptions for 336 yards and six touchdowns with seven games remaining.
Nose tackle Greg Gaines (foot), cornerback Troy Hill (toe) and quarterback Zyon McCollum (hamstring) did not practice Wednesday. Safety Tykee Smith (knee) and left tackle Tristan Wirfs (knee/foot) were limited.
After Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans left the team’s Week Seven loss to the Ravens with a hamstring injury, word was that he was expected to miss three games with a targeted return in Week 12 against the Giants.
It looks like that plan remains in place. Evans did some work when the team returned from their bye week on Monday and reports from the open portion of Tampa’s practice on Wednesday say that he is participating again.
The team’s injury report for the day will bring more information about how much he’s participating, but his presence on the field is a significant step in his return to the lineup for the NFC South club.
The Bucs lost all three games they played without Evans and will need to go on a winning streak to harbor real hopes of passing the Falcons in the division because the Falcons swept the season series between the teams. Evans’s presence wouldn’t guarantee they go on that kind of run, but it would make it a lot likelier.
Giants edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux is on his way back to the lineup.
Head coach Brian Daboll told reporters that Thibodeaux has been designated for return from injured reserve on Wednesday. Daboll said the team is optimistic that Thibodeaux will be able to play against the Buccaneers this weekend.
Thibodeaux had wrist surgery after being injured in the team’s Week Five win over the Seahawks. Before he was injured, Thibodeaux posted 12 tackles, three tackles for loss, two sacks, and seven quarterback hits this season.
While the Giants hope to get him back in the lineup this weekend, they will have a 21-day window for Thibodeaux to work out with the team before reaching a deadline to activate him.
Veteran cornerback Jamel Dean (hamstring) had his 21-day practice window opened Monday. In the meantime, the Bucs signed cornerback Troy Hill to their active roster, the team announced.
The move comes 19 days after Hill signed with the Bucs’ practice squad.
The Bucs waived safety Kaevon Merriweather in a corresponding move.
Hill began his 10th NFL season with the Panthers, but they released him in October. He has played 119 regular-season games, with 60 starts, and his career totals include nine interceptions, three pick-sixes and 41 passes defensed.
He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Bengals in 2015 and also has spent time with the Rams and Browns in addition to the Panthers and Bucs.
Merriweather joined the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent out of Iowa in 2023 and made the active roster as a rookie. He appeared in 16 games with two starts last season. He played nine of the Bucs’ first 10 games this season and recorded three tackles.
The Giants have confirmed Monday morning’s reports that Daniel Jones is out as the team’s starting quarterback.
Head coach Brian Daboll told reporters during a videoconference that Jones has been demoted to the No. 3 spot on the depth chart. Tommy DeVito will take over as the starter while Drew Lock will remain the team’s backup.
Daboll cited DeVito’s play last season while explaining that he’s looking for a similar “spark” by turning to the second-year player as the starter. He added that it was not a reflection on what Lock has or has not done since joining the team this offseason.
“It was more about what I felt Tommy gave us,” Daboll said.
DeVito started six games and made nine appearances for the Giants last season. He was 114-of-178 for 1,101 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions in those contests. His first start of this season will come against the Buccaneers this Sunday.
The Buccaneers are getting a cornerback back on the practice field as they return from their bye week.
The team announced that Jamel Dean will return to practice on Monday. Dean injured his hamstring against the Saints in Week Six and has missed the last four games while on injured reserve.
Dean will have a 21-day window to practice with the team before the Bucs face a deadline to activate him. He could return to the lineup as soon as this Sunday’s game against the Giants, but there should be a better idea about the chances of that happening later in the week.
Dean had 43 tackles and four passes defensed during the first six games of the season.
There have been multiple reports over the past several months that Bill Belichick wants to coach again in 2025. There was another one today. There might be another one tomorrow. Or next Sunday. Or the next.
Of course he wants to coach again. His various and sundry media platforms during the 2024 season weren’t about the money. They’re about building the case to resume the chase for Don Shula’s all-time wins record.
He has used his bully pulpit both to settle scores and to stake out landing spots. From Jacksonville to Tampa to anywhere/everywhere else that might become open during or after the season. The greater the landing spots, the more leverage he’ll have.
But he needs to be careful. Belichick’s recent comment about owners being influenced by outside voices, made during his latest appearance with Pat McAfee, won’t make an owner be more inclined to be the next owner Belichick eventually complains about.
Asked by McAfee whether owners listen to the media, Belichick said this: “One hundred percent. One hundred percent. There’s a lot of times where if you read the Monday papers, you get the exact same questions from the owner when you meet with him later in the day. It’s almost like they read the columns and all and then, you know, whatever’s in the paper, that’s kind of the question. ‘Hey, why didn’t you blitz more? Hey, how come we didn’t run this play more? Hey, how come we didn’t, you know, we went for it on fourth down?’ Whatever it is. Whatever the columns are in the paper, a lot of times that’s what pops up in the owner’s meeting. It is what it is.”
Belichick acknowledged that he made plenty of bad decisions while coaching. That comes from making, as he said, a couple hundred decisions each day.
He said “the worst” owner comments for him happened in Cleveland, while working for the late Art Modell. “‘You know, the guy that’s running the defense,’” Belichick said he was asked. “Like, does he really know what he’s doing? Are you sure that we’re OK on defense? Do you think maybe, you know, do you want to maybe call some more of these defenses?’ [Nick] Saban. [Nick] Saban was the defensive coordinator.”
While Belichick didn’t specifically mention any questions he got from Patriots owner Robert Kraft, the fact that Belichick coached there for 24 years suggests that happened in New England, too. Indeed, Belichick didn’t say Kraft never asked media-influenced questions.
It’s another factor for Belichick’s next employer to consider. Whatever the owner at his next stop says or does will become fodder for his next eventual media blitz. And if you ask him a stupid question, he won’t be bashful about telling the world that you did.
In the aftermath of Baltimore’s Week 7 victory over Tampa Bay, Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith was initially fined $16,883 for the hit that injured Chris Godwin.
But Smith appealed the fine for a hip-drop tackle and won it, with his fine reportedly being rescinded earlier this week.
Smith confirmed that news on Thursday when he spoke with reporters.
“First and foremost, [I’m] wishing a speedy recovery for Godwin,” Smith said, via transcript from the team. “It was never my intention to hurt anyone, like I’ve said before, but it was a clean tackle. It was just on Monday Night Football, the entire world was watching, and hey, it may look like something, but it wasn’t.
“That was clear that it wasn’t, but speedy recovery to him, and I move on with my day.”
Godwin suffered a dislocated ankle on the play and had surgery to correct it. He has said the best-case scenario would be to return for the postseason — should Tampa Bay make it.
Between his stints with the Buccaneers and the Raiders, Jon Gruden worked at ESPN, on Monday Night Football. On the heels of taking his latest job with Barstool Sports, Gruden said he nearly took another job, at the University of Tennessee.
“My wife cheered at Tennessee,” Gruden said on Pardon My Take, via On3.com. “I love Tennessee. I was a graduate coach there, and I did talk to the Athletic Director,” Jon Gruden said. “And I don’t look up to anybody more than I look up to Peyton Manning and Kenny Chesney. Those are two of my favorite Tennessee guys. And I was very interested in doing it.”
But he didn’t.
“At that time I was having so much fun on Monday Night Football with Mike Tirico, I couldn’t take any other job,” Gruden said.. “To be in the thought process is always exciting and hell, Tennessee was one that is really close to my heart. I almost did consider pulling the trigger there.”
He didn’t specify the year, but as noted by On3.com, Tirico and Gruden worked together from 2011 and 2014.
Here’s a PFT item from 2012, in which Gruden’s agent tried to shoot down rumors of Gruden going to Tennessee. That came between the Derek Dooley and Butch Jones regimes. So it all fits.
It’s now clear, 12 years later, that it was much more than rumors, much more than the Tennessee A.D. doing “due diligence” and finding out Gruden wasn’t interested.
He was. Despite what his agent said.
It’s no surprise. But it’s a reminder that, in this business, bullshit is everywhere. It’s never wise to take anything at face value — especially not a denial of interest in a new job.
The Buccaneers claimed safety Mike Edwards off waivers Thursday, the team announced. Tampa Bay waived cornerback Keenan Isaac in a corresponding move.
Edwards was cut by the Titans after only a week and without playing a game. He was inactive for the team’s game against the Chargers this past Sunday.
The Bills released Edwards after he played in three games earlier this season, seeing action on seven defensive snaps and 13 on special teams. He totaled one tackle.
The Bucs made Edwards a third-round pick in 2019, and he spent his first four NFL seasons with the Buccaneers.
In his NFL career, Edwards has played 78 games, including 28 starts.
