Buccaneers don’t appear to be at full strength for Saturday

Heading into the “dress rehearsal” against the Browns, the Buccaneers may have some key starters missing the game.

What’s more important? The starters revving up and getting hyped for a preseason game where they’re expected to play through three quarters? Or making sure they’re healthy and ready to destroy the Dolphins come September 10? For the Buccaneers – and their fans – the latter will take precedent.

We’ve seen Brent Grimes miss both preseason games thus far and now we have Mike Evans missing the last two practices, Kwon Alexander missing time this week, Demar Dotson nursing an injury suffered against the Jacksonville game, and Gerald McCoy being very limited in Thursday’s practice.

For the Bucs, having key players like the ones listed above miss practice is not a good sign. That said, none of them are suffering from injuries that should cause them to miss time in real action. In fact, if they had a regular season game this weekend, every one of them would be on the field.

More from Bucs News

• Devin White posts cryptic message to Lavonte David on Twitter
• Updated Buccaneers depth chart after signing two players from rookie minicamp
• Todd Bowles sends clear message about Baker Mayfield’s role with Bucs
• The Athletic is wrong about Bucs one ‘must-watch’ game in 2023
• Todd Bowles admits he only looks at three things on Bucs schedule

People enjoy the third preseason game far more than any other due to the fact that the starters play so much. For Bucs fans, the impending Stick Carrier Preseason Pillage taking place will have the stadium rocking in a regular season type atmosphere. All of that is great, but no one should be disappointed that key guys will be missing time this weekend.

At the end of the day, it’s just not important. It’s the Browns, in a preseason game, with them trotting DeShone Kizer out as their starting quarterback. I’m a big proponent of starters getting their reps in preseason so they are ready to go come week one, but given what we’ve seen out of this offense through two preseason games I would have no issue with the Bucs pulling the starters midway through the second quarter.

Next: People Finally Seeing The Real Jameis

Don’t be surprised if more starters end up missing the game Saturday or have limited reps. This team is built to contend for the division this season but they can’t do that if they aren’t healthy. Let them get their rest and watch them do things we’ve never seen a Buccaneers offense do in over four decades of Tampa Bay football.