It’s been no secret that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have struggled with injuries this year. As frustrating as it is for Bucs fans and players alike, the team was due for a season like this. They were overwhelmingly fortunate to play all last year with nearly no serious injuries, especially no serious injuries to crucial players.
But in a game as arduous and tough as football, the law of averages will always strike back, and it has this season. This began in week one when cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting left the game with an elbow injury and has since been followed in past weeks by tight end Rob Gronkowski, cornerback Carleton Davis, linebacker Lavonte David, safety Antoine Winfield, and most recently newly signed cornerback Richard Sherman. To suffer this many injuries, especially when they are so concentrated on the team’s defense, would derail many teams in the league.
Thankfully for the Bucs, the offense has been a powerhouse and remained mostly healthy in regard to their crucial players aside from Gronkowski, which is a position the team is relatively deep in anyway. This has allowed the secondary of the Bucs, which is essentially in shambles, to be terrible, yet still come out with a win in nearly every game this season.
Unfortunately for Bucs fans, they shouldn’t expect to see any of the previously mentioned faces making their returns this Sunday in the team’s matchup against the Chicago Bears. All reports are saying that none of those players even suited up for the team’s practice yesterday.
This shouldn’t come as any kind of shock though. The Bears aren’t exactly a prime-time game for the Bucs, and even with a crippled defense they should still easily manage to win the game. That being the case, Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians is most-likely in no rush to get his injured players back on the field this week. It would appear that he would like to see those players take their time returning to ensure they are 100% before cleating up again.
With a team as experienced and talented as the Bucs are, they have no need to prove anything to anyone in the regular season and that appears to be exactly what they think as well. Unfortunately, if you’re a Bucs fan, this does mean you shouldn’t expect to see some the full team back in action for at least a few more weeks at a minimum.