Buccaneers need depth receiver to step up with another crushing injury

Mike Evans is healthy for the Buccaneers, but Tom Brady will still be without his second and third receivers today. Russell Gage needs to step up.

As if the Saints games weren’t difficult enough for the Buccaneers.

Seriously, does anyone remember the last time that the Bucs were at full strength in a division matchup against New Orleans?

The already-difficult game is only made all the more challenging with the loss of key plays. This week, those players are Donovan Smith, Chris Godwin, and Julio Jones has just joined that list on game day.

What a terrible time to find out that another one of your starting wide receivers is not going to be available in the toughest game of the season so far.

The loss of Jones thrusts a new wide receiver into the starting role; Russell Gage.

Gage was a big-time signing when free agency opened up, but a lot of the fire left once the Bucs signed Jones to be their obvious WR3. The first game didn’t do a lot to make a case for Gage to get more reps going forward, but the game today could do a lot to show the Bucs that they have more of a competition at that third spot than initially believed.

Gage is a good receiver, and he will have a huge portion of the spotlight on his game as the Bucs don’t have much behind him with guaranteed talent at the position.

If the Buccaneers hope to escape this matchup with a win, a huge part of that success will come from Russell Gage and how well him will be able to play in his first start as a Buccaneer.

Based on what we have seen from the guys behind him, we sure hope it is a great game from Gage to replace what we saw from Julio Jones in Week 1.

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