Buccaneers wide receiver Jalen McMillan had a promising rookie season last year, but he hasn’t played at all this year because of a preseason neck injury that coach Todd Bowles says includes broken bones.
The injury, which had previously been described as a “strain,” sounded more serious based on the way Bowles described it on Ira Kaufman’s podcast.
“He’s still in the brace, but he’s getting better. He’s getting better,” Bowles said, via ESPN. “But necks are not like ankles or arms where you see progress where you can lift on ‘em and work ‘em out when you’re still on the brace and you say, ‘Oh, he looks good today. He’s getting stronger, he is getting faster.’ It’s a neck injury. And those, like you said, it’s a life thing if it doesn’t heal the right way. So they’re saying it’s healing the right way.”
It’s unclear when McMillan will be able to get back on the field.
“Until he puts on a helmet and it starts working out and everything else, you just don’t know,” Bowles said. “I don’t know what getting better means as well because they say it’s not like you can see inside the neck and say, ‘Well he’s moving it a lot better.’ I’m sure he can turn it, but it’s just a matter of the bones healing the right way, and those are such difficult bones to judge inside the neck. And I’m not in a medical profession, but he’s coming along. I think he’s in good spirits, and I think he’s getting a lot better. I just don’t know how close.”
Bucs Clips
Tampa Bay outside linebacker Anthony Nelson had a big day against New Orleans and now has been recognized for it.
Nelson has been named NFC defensive player of the week.
Nelson registered 2.0 sacks, a forced fumble, and returned an interception for a touchdown in the victory. Nelson became just the third player from 2000 to put together a game with two sacks, a forced fumble, and a pick-six. It’s the first time that happened since Week 16 of the 2007 season.
A fourth-round pick in 2019, Nelson has spent his entire career with the Buccaneers. This is his first player of the week award.
The Buccaneers have called on Chase McLaughlin to make a number of game-winning field goals this season, but they didn’t need those kind of heroics in Week 8 against the Saints.
After building a 14-3 lead, the Bucs offense struggled to get the ball into the red zone for the rest of the second half. That did not wind up costing them because McLaughlin was able to make all three field goals he tried in the final two quarters of the game.
All three of McLaughlin’s makes came from beyond 50 yards and McLaughin is now 8-of-8 on kicks from that distance this season.
McLaughlin’s effort was recognized with the NFC special teams player of the week award on Wednesday. It’s the first time he has taken the NFC honors, but he did win the AFC version during the 2022 season.
The Buccaneers bounced back from a Week 7 loss to the Lions to beat the Saints 23-3 and move to 6-2 on Sunday, but quarterback Baker Mayfield wasn’t thrilled with the team’s offensive performance.
The Bucs only picked up 212 yards and went 3-of-13 on third downs during an outing that the quarterback said “wasn’t nearly good enough or close to what we want it to look like.” Four takeaways by the defense and three Caleb McLaughlin field goals from more than 50 yards made sure that the meager output was enough for the win, but the Bucs will need more from the offense in the weeks to come.
Getting it will be easier if they can get some players back to health and head coach Todd Bowles had that on his mind when discussing the team’s Week 9 bye.
“It will be huge,” Bowles said, via the team’s website. “It’s halfway through the season. We need it more than anybody. I credit those guys for fighting week-in and week-out, people stepping up and people moving to different positions and helping us win, which you have to do in order to be a good team. So we’ve done that the first half. We’ve got to rest up. It’s going to be a hell of a second half so we’ve got to be ready for it.”
Wide receiver Chris Godwin and running back Bucky Irving are at the top of the list of missing pieces and having them back for Week 10 against the Patriots would be a good way to kick off the second half.
In the second quarter on Sunday, Saints receiver Rashid Shaheed fumbled, Buccaneers cornerback Antoine Winfield scooped the ball up and raced 47 yards to the end zone. But Winfield did not score a touchdown.
That’s because an official blew the play dead after Winfield recovered. Why? No one seems to know, but referee Ron Torbert said after the game that the official who blew the play dead was on the other side of the field.
“We ruled that there was a fumble. It was recovered by the defense, but there was a whistle blown from the other side of the field. The official thought that the runner was down. We were able to award the defense the ball after the fumble but because the whistle had been blown, we could not award the advance afterwards,” Torbert told pool reporter Luke Johnson.
That explanation makes no sense. Why would an official on the other side of the field make that call, when officials closer to the play could clearly see that the runner wasn’t down?
That hasn’t been explained, but Torbert said that the crew discussed what happened and when one official admitted blowing the whistle, that meant everything that happened subsequently didn’t count.
On a bad day for NFL officiating, this play stood out: Winfield lost a touchdown because an official messed up.
The Buccaneers are missing several key offensive pieces due to injuries, so they leaned on their defense in New Orleans on Sunday.
Anthony Nelson returned an interception for a touchdown in the first half and the Bucs forced four total turnovers en route to a 23-3 win. The victory sends them into their bye week with a 6-2 record and they’ll be hoping to get players like wide receiver Chris Godwin and running back Bucky Irving back for the start of the second half of the season.
Nelson forced a Spencer Rattler fumble in the first quarter before picking him off on the New Orleans four-yard line and strolling into the end zone. The Bucs thought they had another defensive touchdown when safety Antoine Winfield Jr. returned a fumble for a touchdown, but an inadvertent whistle took the score off the board.
The 1-7 Saints pulled Rattler in favor of rookie Tyler Shough in the third quarter and Winfield picked him off for the final takeaway of the game. Shough was 17-of-30 for 128 yards and Saints head coach Kellen Moore will be fielding questions about which quarterback will get the start against the Rams in Los Angeles in Week 9.
Nelson added two sacks to the forced turnovers and the Bucs had five in total over the course of the win. Their offense chipped in with a Sean Tucker touchdown run and three field goals, but they spent most of the day doing just enough to make sure that the defense’s strong work would stand up.
Tucker’s touchdown came on a fourth down from the Saints’ 1-yard line after the Bucs had failed to score from that spot on the first three downs. They also got stopped without points on four plays from the 1 in the first half, but Nelson’s interception came right after that turnover on downs and the Bucs’ win was never in serious doubt from that point forward.
The Saints made a quarterback change in the third quarter of Sunday’s home game against the Buccaneers.
Rookie Tyler Shough replaced Spencer Rattler around the four-minute mark with the Saints down 17-3. Rattler is on the sideline with a baseball cap and there’s been no injury announced, so it appears Saints head coach Kellen Moore has made the decision to try to spark his offense.
Rattler was 15-of-21 for 136 yards, but had an interception returned for a touchdown and lost a fumble in the first half of the game.
Shough was a second-round pick earlier this year and threw two passes in mopup duty during a loss to the Seahawks.
The Buccaneers defense scored one touchdown and it looked like they had another just before halftime, but an errant whistle wound up costing them six points.
Cornerback Jamel Dean stripped Saints wideout Rashid Shaheed of the ball and safety Antoine Winfield returned the ball for a touchdown that would have put the Bucs up 13-0. Officials ruled that an inadvertant whistle blew during the play, however, and the Bucs had to settle for taking over near midfield.
That reversal wound up looming large because Baker Mayfield lost the ball on a Chase Young sack a few plays later and the Saints were able to drive for a field goal that made it 7-3 before halftime.
Mayfield has been sacked three times and the Bucs offense was also stopped short on four straight snaps from the Saints’ 1-yard line in the first quarter. Edge rusher Anthony Nelson returned a Spencer Rattler interception for a touchdown a couple of plays after their unsuccessful fourth down try, so pinning the Saints deep wound up working.
Nelson also forced Rattler to fumble early in the game and the defense’s efforts have made the sluggish offense easier to bear for the Bucs through 30 minutes.
The Buccaneers offense couldn’t score on four plays from the Saints’ 1-yard line, but the defense made up for it.
Edge rusher Anthony Nelson batted a Spencer Rattler pass into the air and then picked it off for a four-yard touchdown return. The extra point made it 7-0 Bucs with 6:41 to play in the first hal.
Nelson also forced a Rattler fumble on a scramble and he sacked the Saints quarterback, so it’s been a busy day already for the veteran.
The Bucs drove 91 yards on their last offensive possession, but neither Rachaad White nor Sean Tucker could break through the Saints’ line for a touchdown. Nelson’s play eased the pain of that failure and the Bucs will try for better results once they get the ball back.
Defensive tackle Vita Vea missed the last two days of practice this week, but the Buccaneers will have him in the lineup against the Saints on Sunday.
Vea is active despite the foot injury that kept him off the field on Thursday and Friday. Vea has started every game this season and has 17 tackles, 2.5 sacks and a fumble recovery on the year.
The Bucs will not have wide receiver Chris Godwin, running back Bucky Irving, guard Luke Haggard, defensive lineman C.J. Brewer, safety Sebastian Castro, cornerback Kindle Vildor, and edge rusher Haason Reddick.
Quarterback Connor Bazelak is active along with Baker Mayfield and Teddy Bridgewater. It is the first time the rookie has been active this season.
Guard Xavier Truss, tight end Zaire Mitchell-Paden, defensive back Ugo Amadi, cornerback Rejzohn Wright, defensive lineman Jonah Williams, and defensive lineman Khristian Boyd are inactive for the Saints.
