We're two weeks into the NFL season, but a Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie is about to embark on a pretty major milestone first.
Rookie cornerback Benjamin Morrison is officially active and set to make his NFL debut under the bright lights of Monday Night Football. He missed all training camp and the preseason with an injury, but that hasn't damped the glow he's had ever since being drafted back in April.
All signs point to the wait being worth it.
He likely won't play much in the secondary, especially since Todd Bowles doesn't typically rotate his inside corners. Still, Morrison will probably see action on special teams and could step in if needed to help boost the defense.
Buccaneers rookie Benjamin Morrison is making his long-awaited NFL debut in Week 2
Morrison was picked in the second-round, despite having been labeled a first-round talent for most of the draft process. His numbers at Notre Dame were outstanding, being named first team All-American before the season and finishing off his year helping lead the Irish to their first National Championship Game since 2012.
Injuries held him back from being picked in the first round, but that ended up working out well for the Bucs. In most of those knee-jerk, way-too-early mock drafts after the 2023 NFL Draft, a lot of experts had the Bucs circled as the team that would take Morrison.
That ended up happening but the Bucs were able to have their cake and eat it too. Tampa Bay tooke Emeka Egbuka with the No. 19 pick and then went back-to-back on cornerbacks with Morrison and Kansas State's Jacob Parrish on Day 2.
Not all three will be suiting up together and giving the Bucs some much-needed hope on Monday night.
Beyond the secondary woes Tampa Bay has dealt with -- something that directly led to the cornerback double-dip in the draft -- the Bucs have a lot to prove in primetime. Since the Baker Mayfield era began two years ago, Tampa Bay has yet to win a regular season primetime game and you have to go back to Week 16 of the 2022 season for the last time they managed to earn a victory.
Of course, that's glossing over a pretty siesmic win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card game back in 2023, a victory that techincally happened on Monday Night Football. So you could say the Bucs wait until it counts to win on national television.
That's not going to cut it now, though. Stakes have never been higher since Tom Brady retired and there's no margin for error. The Bucs cannot afford to slip into another midseason coma like they have in each of the last two seasons, and getting the primetime monkey off their back would go a long way in gaining some confidence.
It's this reality that Morrison steps into to make his rookie debut. Egbuka set the stage last week with a two touchdown performance in his first game as a pro, and here's to hoping Morrison can keep that streak going in some fashion.
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