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Buccaneers backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater wishes he weren’t in the NFL right now.

Bridgewater signed with the Buccaneers only after he was suspended from Miami Northwestern High School for what Florida high school officials call improper benefits to players and he calls simply trying to help out kids who needed help.

It’s very upsetting,” Bridgewater said, via the Associated Press. “Just knowing that you have good intentions and those good intentions will be turned against you and used against you.”

Bridgewater still wants to coach the team again in the future, even if that’s not going to happen this season.

“I’m hoping to get it resolved because those kids have a special place in my heart,” Bridgewater said. “And I’d love to finish what I started with them.”

Bridgewater was a volunteer coach and will make more than $1 million this season with the Bucs, but he’d rather be coaching anyway.

“I can make a ton of money playing football,” Bridgewater said. “Coaching high school ball, I get nothing. But it’s not even about the money. It’s about giving those kids a building block to go out into the real world and be productive.”

Coaching high school may be in Bridgewater’s future, but for this year, he’s back in the NFL.


Just after the Buccaneers completed their joint practice with the Steelers, head coach Todd Bowles told reporters that all starters aside from Mike Evans and Lavonte David would play in Saturday’s preseason game.

But upon further review, Bowles wants to hold out one more starter.

Via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, Bowles decided after reviewing tape of Thursday’s practice that Mayfield will not play against Pittsburgh.

Reports out of yesterday’s practice indicated that Mayfield had plenty of passing success, particularly when throwing to Evans.

Mayfield did not play in the team’s first preseason game last week against the Titans.

Without Mayfield, Kyle Trask, Teddy Bridgewater, and Connor Bazelak are available to play at quarterback for the Bucs on Saturday night.


The vast majority of the Buccaneers starters are set to see playing time on Saturday against the Steelers.

Via multiple reporters, head coach Todd Bowles said following Thursday’s joint practice with Pittsburgh that every starter but receiver Mike Evans and linebacker Lavonte David will play in the preseason matchup.

That means quarterback Baker Mayfield should be on the field for Tampa Bay against Pittsburgh after he didn’t play against the Titans last week.

Bowles added that quarterback Teddy Bridgewater should make his Bucs debut against Pittsburgh.

The Steelers, however, are not set to play their starters after going through Thursday’s joint practice. Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin told reporters earlier in the day that playing time in the second preseason game will be similar to that of last week’s game against Jacksonville.


Pittsburgh’s plan for playing time in the second week of the preseason will largely be the same as the first.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin told reporters in his Thursday press conference that most starters will not play in Saturday’s matchup against the Buccaneers.

That means players like Aaron Rodgers, DK Metcalf, T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Jalen Ramsey, and Cam Heyward — among several others — will stay on the sideline this weekend. The starters are getting their work in Thursday’s joint practice with the Bucs.

Tomlin added that linebacker Nick Herbig could potentially see some time in the game.

Mason Rudolph is set to start at quarterback with Rodgers on the shelf.


The Buccaneers were missing one of their defensive stars at Wednesday’s practice.

Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. did not take part in the team’s workout. Head coach Todd Bowles said, via the team, that Winfield is dealing with a lower leg issue.

Bowles did not provide any timeline for how long Winfield is expected to be out. Making sure that Winfield is 100 percent for the Week 1 road game against the Falcons is sure to be their top priority, however.

Winfield was an All-Pro in 2023, but he was limited to nine games during the 2024 season by knee and ankle injuries. He finished the year with 60 tackles, two sacks, and a fumble recovery.


Earlier this year, Buccaneers G.M. Jason Licht said that he shies away from “d-bags and assholes” when it’s time to draft players.

While Licht expressly applied neither category to former Buccaneers linebacker Devin White, something would have kept Licht from taking White, if Licht had a chance to do it all over again.

“Knowing what I know now, he would have been off my board,” Licht told Dan Pompei of TheAthletic.com. “It was too much about him.”

White was the fifth overall pick in the 2019 draft. He spent five years with the Buccaneers. Then came a short, failed stint with the Eagles in 2024. He later appeared in seven games with the Texans.

Now, he’s with the Raiders. And Licht’s comment undoubtedly will be used by coach Pete Carroll to get the most out of White in his fourth NFL stop. Not that much needs to be done; in in team’s first 2025 depth chart, White is listed as a starting outside linebacker.


Tom Brady is a minority owner of the Raiders, but it’s the quarterback of the AFC West rival Chiefs he most respects in the NFL today.

Asked on the Joel Klatt Show if there are any quarterbacks he respects for how they go about their business or remind him of himself, Brady named only Mahomes as he gave a long answer about everything a quarterback has to do to win.

“It’s always that line about who wants to win versus who’s willing to do whatever it takes to win,” Brady said. “Everyone wants to win, but what are the habits and the daily habits and the actionable things you need to do every day to put your team in a position to win? So Patrick Mahomes, to me, is the one that does that the most often because who he is, obviously his physical talent, how he understands what he needs to do offensively, and he brings a consistent winning attitude to work every single day. In the biggest moments you can depend on him the most. That’s clear.”

Brady didn’t mention any other active quarterbacks by name but indicated that the other top quarterbacks in the league still have more to prove before they’re on Mahomes’ level.

“There’s other guys that are still developing, and they need to prove it before, in my mind, I can say, ‘Oh yeah, he’s done it.’ Well, obviously, he hasn’t done it yet,” Brady said. “They’ve all shown flashes of amazing things. They’re all great players. All of them can make tremendous plays. At some point, they need to take the next step and take, in my mind, more ownership of what they’re doing, in terms of the organizational level, to do more things to empower more people, to get more people on that train or that bus with you to head in the direction you want to go.”

Brady said he isn’t sure if the current crop of quarterbacks outside Mahomes are doing every single thing they need to do to be the leaders of a franchise.

“The quarterback, in many ways, is the CEO of the team,” Brady said. “Certainly on game day, there’s nobody that impacts the game more than the quarterback in NFL football. Now, you have to have the ability and the belief from the entire team, offensively and defensively, that your word means so much. And how you act every day matters to all three phases of the game. As a quarterback you don’t just punch the clock, ‘I did my job, I threw for 40 touchdowns, why are we not winning?’ What are you doing in the offseason to help your defense? What are you doing to push the personnel department, to get people doing the right thing. Are you involved in game planning? I used to do game plans. I used to walk in and say, ‘Here’s the things we’re doing.’ I used to do my own walk-throughs. I used to say, ‘Alright, guys, I don’t give a fuck if the coaches want to come, we’re doing our walk-through.’”

Brady reached 10 Super Bowls and won seven of them, the best in NFL history. Mahomes has been to five Super Bowls and won three. Time will tell if Mahomes is ever going to supplant Brady as the greatest quarterback in NFL history, but Brady thinks Mahomes is doing the right things to get there — even as the team Brady co-owns tries to prevent that from happening.


The Buccaneers lost a running back to injury over the weekend, so they’re moving to add a healthy one on Monday.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that they are going to sign former Falcon Jase McClellan. McClellan was a 2024 sixth-round pick in Atlanta and he was released by the Bucs’ NFC South rival in June.

Rachaad White left Saturday’s game against the Titans with a groin injury and went for further testing Sunday. Bucs head coach Todd Bowles told reporters on Monday that White is considered day-to-day.

McClellan appeared in two games as a rookie. He ran 13 times for 32 yards in those outings.


There is positive news on the injury front for one of the Buccaneers’ key offensive players.

Head coach Todd Bowles told reporters in his Monday press conference that running back Rachaad White is considered day-to-day with his groin injury.

White, 26, exited Saturday’s exhibition matchup with the Titans early and underwent further testing on Sunday.

Last season, White rushed for 613 yards with three touchdowns and caught 51 passes for 393 yards with six TDs.


Buccaneers running back Rachaad White left Saturday’s game against the Titans with a groin injury, but head coach Todd Bowles says there’s one piece of good news: Backup running back Sean Tucker is ready and able to make a big impact if he gets the ball in his hands.

Bowles said that in addition to last season’s leading rusher, Bucky Irving, Tucker is a very capable part of the Buccaneers’ running game.

“Sean brings us another explosive runner,” Bowles said. “He’s a game breaker for us, really. He’s got very good contact balance, he can break a lot of tackles, he can naturally find holes. He’s very fast but he looks so smooth doing it that you really can’t tell until he gets into the open field.”

Bowles said he has been telling his offensive assistant to get Tucker more involved, even before White’s injury.

“I keep telling the guys on offense, we’ve got to give him the ball more,” Bowles said.

Last year Tucker had 50 carries for 308 yards. Expect more from Tucker this season.