Buccaneers’ Wide Receiver Battle Still Wide Open

After a poor performance last night by every receiver fighting for a roster spot not named Russel Shepard, head coach Dirk Koetter still believes each one of the Buccaneers receivers has a chance to make the team.

It’s pretty sad when every receiver on a team fighting for that fourth, fifth, and potentially sixth spot on the depth chart plays so poorly that none of them took the opportunity to separate themselves from the pack. However, that’s exactly what happened with the Buccaneers in their preseason opener in Philadelphia – a 17-9 loss headlined by five Buccaneers turnovers.

Dirk Koetter held a press conference today and took the opportunity to speak about the battle at the receiver position;

"“Yeah I would say that [there were some standout receivers], first off just in the receiving game in general and this would incorporate running backs and tight ends, we had seven drops last night. We can’t drop the ball seven times. You’re just not going to win games like that. That’s a little bit further down than four turnovers, but it still happened. As far as the wide receivers in particular, I thought two guys stepped up and showed that they’re in the mix and that’s Russell Shepard and Donteea Dye. More from Bucs NewsDevin White posts cryptic message to Lavonte David on TwitterUpdated Buccaneers depth chart after signing two players from rookie minicampTodd Bowles sends clear message about Baker Mayfield’s role with BucsThe Athletic is wrong about Bucs one ‘must-watch’ game in 2023Todd Bowles admits he only looks at three things on Bucs scheduleThose two guys made plays. DD made three really nice plays on special teams, he had that explosive pass that got called back for an OPI. There’s just a lot of close calls and officials I think do a fantastic job, but it was just hard to find much fault with ‘DD’ on that play. He made a nice catch, ran a nice route, spun out, had a good run. Now bottom line, it got called back for a penalty on him.But those two guys I thought showed up okay. Now I’m sure everyone is going to be crushing Kenny Bell. Kenny Bell, as far as offense goes, Kenny Bell beat his man multiple times and just didn’t get the ball thrown to him. On the very last drive, he ran a little double-move and was open, we overthrew him. There’s probably five plays in the game where Kenny did his job and got open. Sometimes he’s not the primary, but he did all he can do, he just didn’t get the ball thrown to him. Now unfortunately, we fumbled the opening kickoff and he had another penalty that hurt us on special teams on another play. But it’s one preseason game, we’ve had 11 other practices. In the next two weeks, we’re going to go six times, six days in the next two weeks against other teams. So there’s still plenty of evaluation to go.”"

Basically, that sums up to receivers can’t catch the ball and Kenny Bell ran routes. Well, we know he can run – it’s the catching part he struggles with.

This is certainly a fluid situation and a competition that will go down to the bitter end. I would argue that Kenny Bell has the steepest climb to a roster spot given his problems last training camp, compounded by his stone hands this year and his costly turnover on the opening kickoff.

Next: Bucs Must Be Able To Adapt

Which receivers do you think have the best chance to make the team? Which ones do you see being a roster cut casualty? Sound off in the comments and let us know!