After the chaos of roster cutdowns earlier in the week, teams across the NFL spent Wednesday putting together their practice squads. This meant scouring the waiver wire for players other teams had let go, but it also invovled avoiding players who had been tossed aside.
One of those players was safety Shilo Sanders. He was among the first wave of roster cuts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made over the weekend, a decision that came after he got himself kicked out of the preseason finale. Shilo was ejected for throwing a punch at Buffalo Bills tight end Zach Davidson, a move that seems to have cost him any shot at having a future with the Bucs.
Tampa Bay filled every single one of its practice squad slots with players who weren’t Sanders.
It sent a message which was once again loud and clear: Shilo Sanders has no place anywhere on the roster.
The Henderson signing means the Bucs are not bringing back rookie safety Shilo Sanders, who was among their cuts to get down to 53.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) August 27, 2025
Buccaneers just dropped the hammer on Shilo Sanders (again)
It wasn’t all bad with Sanders, which is what makes the way things ended even more of a bummer. He impressed in all the right ways for almost the entire time he was with the Buccaneers, from showing improvement at training camp to having genuine interactions with fans.
All of that was punched through with one boneheaded swing from Sanders. He had played his way into a clear path to being a practice squad player, if not a potential special teams guy, but he clipped all of that with one bad decision.
Tampa Bay left the door open to plenty of players it let go over the last few days. Even Desmond Watson, who was on the NFI list the entire month of August and didn’t practice or participate in a single drill, was considered by Todd Bowles for a some sort of role after being released.
Not Sanders, though, despite him showing more than Watson and some other players at camp. That’s how poorly him losing his temper is being looked at and it’s a reminder that the Buccaneers didn’t get the culture the team has by accident.
It’s a painful message to be told twice that a team doesn’t want you, but hopefully it helps guide Sanders in a better direction than he was heading on Saturday night.
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