The Buccaneers need to be extremely cautious about injuries this weekend.
The Washington Football Team had some hype going into their matchup with the Buccaneers last season in the playoffs, but the shine is gone this season. The Football Team is still a quarterback and some change away from being the contender that some analysts saw them as last season, and the Bucs need to keep this evaluation in mind ahead of their matchup this weekend.
This is not to say that the Buccaneers should overlook anyone. Doing so is an easy way to lose a game. However, there are games where you need to put all of your chips on the table to win, and this is clearly not one of them.
The top seed in the conference and winning games is obviously important, but losing key contributors to injuries with another half of the season remaining is dangerous. The Bucs absolutely need a good game from everyone on the field this weekend to pull out a win, but they don’t need to make any rash injury moves to move the needle.
Tampa currently has question marks across their roster. From Sean Murphy-Bunting to Chris Godwin and Scotty Miller, the Bucs could be as close to full strength as they’ve been all season this weekend or back to the usual “down three to five starters” lineup.
While it would be nice to get most of these contributors back as soon as possible, rushing anyone for a game like this is a bad idea. If any of these players are not as close to 100% as possible, they shouldn’t play. Football is a sport of attrition, and injuries are almost always prevalent for the players that live on the field, and bringing anyone back at less than 100% only depletes their shelf life even more down the stretch.
The Buccaneers are obviously a playoff team and have their sights set very high in this postseason. Getting a win against the WFT is an important step in securing advantages in the playoffs, but Tampa is good enough to win without pushing good players into dangerous situations.
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